


春心蕩漾

by huangjinguo



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, alpha!yixing, also this sucks a lot but oh well, it was too late to drop out so hahahahaha, omega!yifan, yeah you read that right back out if you can't stand yifan as the bottom lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-26
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-03-31 21:09:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 30,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13983375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/huangjinguo/pseuds/huangjinguo
Summary: Attraction has always worked in strange ways for Yixing, and so he doesn't really know what draws him to the tall omega stumbling over his own feet in the coffeeshop, but he knows that he's a lost cause when he gets flashed a gummy smile in response for helping with cleaning up the spilled drink.





	1. PT I

**Author's Note:**

> Holy macaroni, my first ABO and I think I failed A LOT, sorry for the prompter, I tried but... sometimes... it's just not meant to be. I'm also tired and stressed out so take a sparsely edited fic and just... idk deal with this pile of idiocy. I swear I won't touch ABO ever again lol.
> 
> Short disclaimers:
> 
> I tried to use the usual "rules" but then went overboard, so here ya go:
> 
> \- bonds don't need to be forever, and ppl can be mated without being bonded? does that make sense? a.k.a mates can be regular boyfriends/girlfriends that you also break up with eventually. you can get bonded with someone who is not "your real mate" bc the feelings will eventually fade and you'll move on  
> \- omegas can get pregnant even if their alpha's rut is not synched with their heat (bc i wrote a huge portion about that whole shit and was too lazy to change it when my beta said that this is usually when they're synched up so yeah lol take it or leave it)  
> \- 2017 yixing and 2013 yifan? YES.

***

Freshly brewed coffee. That is the only thing that can get Zhang Yixing into motion in the morning, especially when he’s doomed to an early lecture for a subject that he doesn’t even like. What’s kind of shitty though is his broken coffee machine - thus forcing him to roll out of bed even earlier to grab a coffee-to-go at the coffeeshop on campus.

It’s a cold November morning, and there’s a smell of coming snow hanging in the air when he steps out of his dorm building. Yixing fastens his pace, mumbling some curses into his scarf while he makes his way to his destination. God, how he hates the winter.

It’s a little weird that he’s never visited the coffeeshop before, given the fact that it’s actually on the way to his lectures and is basically a five minute walk from his dorm room. When he walks through the door, the smell of roasted coffee beans tickles his nose and he feels refuelled immediately. There’s a line in front of him and he queues behind a taller guy whose crouched position gives away that he’s probably typing something on his phone. Yixing doesn’t mind waiting, because he has no idea what to get anyway, so he checks the menu while some random acoustic cover of a recent pop song fills the air.

“Good morning Yifan, what can I get you?”

“Good morning. Can you, umm… get me my usual order, please?”

“Sure!”

Yixing has decided to go for a regular coffee and gets startled when he hears the voice of the guy in front of him which is carrying over with the tunes of the guitar strings. It’s very deep and soothing and Yixing tries to get a little closer, just in case he says something again. Through the smell of coffee and tea, he also makes out another smell, the one lingering on the other man. Yixing doesn’t have the chance to make out the specific scent though as the stranger retreats to the pick up counter and the barista turns her attention to Yixing.

“Good morning, what can I get you?” She asks with a practiced smile.

Yixing orders his coffee quickly and walks over to the counter where the other guy is leaning against, his eyes glued to his phone again. His nose is buried in a black scarf and his two thumbs fly over the keyboard of his phone in an amazing speed. Yixing tilts his head and catches himself wishing he’d look up so he can have a better look at his face. Something about the man tickles Yixing’s senses, but he’s not quite sure what _exactly_ it is. He’s tall, and judging from his straight nose and perfectly shaped eyebrows, he’s probably pretty handsome. And right when Yixing doesn’t even try to hide that he’s examining the other, the guy looks up carefully, probably fully aware that he’s being watched. When their gazes meet, his eyes widen in shock, and he quickly looks down again. Yixing can detect a slight blush on his cheeks as he pulls the scarf even further up his face, as if he wants to disappear on the spot.

 _Cute, an Omega_ , Yixing thinks as he’s getting the vibes, but right when he opens his mouth to say something, the barista busts in and loudly announces an order:

“Yifan, your Caramel Latte!”

Yifan is so eager to get away, he grabs the big mug with his order and doesn’t even bother to say a thank you - unfortunately, he’s so eager to disappear quickly that he’s grabbing the mug with way too much force. While he turns around to leave for a seat, physics take their toll on the beverage, and he spills the coffee. Over his hand, the counter, and ultimately Yixing’s white scarf that gets stained with cream, caramel drizzle, and the coffee itself.

“Fuck!” Yifan roars.

Yixing should be pissed, but instead, he just blinks at the other, totally enchanted by his face and the worried crease that appears on his forehead. The barista huddles over to hand him some tissues.

“I’m… I’m so sorry…” The Omega starts mumbling, and Yixing smells the fear wailing up from him as he clumsily begins to clean up the mess on the other, “I didn’t mean to… God, I’m just… really… sorry!”

“It’s okay,” Yixing finally says and grabs Yifan’s wrist to stop him patting his stained clothing, “It’s just a scarf.”

The other seems confused and opens his mouth to launch an explanation of any sort, but the words get stuck in his throat when Yixing’s hand wraps around his. He stares at Yixing’s fingers embracing his own and blushes - for a second, both of them don’t move, and the attraction both feel keeps hanging in the air and pulling at their chests.

“I’ll help you,” Yixing finally says as he pulls himself back together and hovers over to the counter to start wiping up the mess. 

“Umm… thank you…”

Yixing gets flashed a thankful gummy smile and in that moment, it’s decided.

_I need to have him._

The thought hits the Alpha out of nowhere and without any heads up, but it’s the first thing in months that he’s sure about. He needs to have that guy. He’s going to be his mate. Simple as that.

Right in that moment though, Yixing’s phone goes off, and he’s playing with the thought of not answering, but the caller won’t give up, so he hits that green phone button on the screen.

“Yeah?”

“Dude, you have like five minutes to get your ass here,” his best friend Lu Han greets him, “You know how strict our professor is with the attendance? And I’m seriously tired of dragging your ass through the semester, so move it.”

“Wow, good morning to you too, you ray of sunshine!” Yixing grunts.

“Yeah. Come over here and stop whining.”

Yixing rolls his eyes.

“Okay, okay, I’ll be there in five minutes, chill.”

He doesn’t even wait for Lu Han to say anything else and hangs up on him. While he stuffs his phone back into the pocket of his jacket, the barista puts his coffee to go down the counter. He takes another long look at the other male, and decides that bluntly asking for his number might be too much. He senses that the other one is rather sensitive and shy, so he needs a different approach. He quickly connects that Yifan is a regular at this shop, so he decides that he’ll just try his luck again tomorrow morning.

The Alpha reaches over to retrieve his order and rubs his wrist against the exposed skin of the other’s, trying to wear his scent off on him.

“I’ll see you around, handsome,” he chirps and finally picks up his coffee.

The answer is a squeal Yifan tries to suppress. Yixing chuckles and dashes out of the coffeeshop. While he walks down to the lecture hall, he tries to remember the other’s smell.

Definitely coffee. But there was a second note clinging on him, just as prominently as the beverage. Yixing just can’t figure out what exactly it was.

***

“God, Dude, what happened to your scarf?”

Lu Han grabs the cloth and looks at the brown and sticky mess all over it.

“You know, I decide to go to that coffeeshop on campus one time in my life, and some guy spills his drink all over me,” Yixing explains.

“Ugh, seriously? Did you beat the guy up?”

“No,” Yixing answers and thinks back to Yifan’s face - and that cute, gummy smile he flashed at him before he left.

God, shit, that guy was cute as fuck.

“Actually,” Yixing says while Lu Han keeps shaking his head as he looks at the stains once more, “He was kinda cute.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah.”

The Alpha cannot even hide the creepy smile that appears on his face and his best friend tilts his head.

“Tell me more,” he demands and leans over the table, showing that he’s highly interested in what Yixing has to say.

Yixing hasn’t gone seeing other people for quite a while now and it concerns Lu Han. Being one of the lead Alpha males around campus, Yixing has admirers on basically every finger, plenty of possible mates to choose from, but he just kindly dodges every approach. No one has managed to spark his interest. Hearing him saying that he found a rando at a coffeeshop cute makes Lu Han’s senses tingle.

“I don’t know man… just… he’s just…” Yixing starts and groans at his own incoherence, “Okay, so he’s very tall, right, but… super clumsy, I mean, you see how my scarf looks. And even after I helped him clean the mess he almost knocked over the rest of the interior. And that _smile_ , Lu Han, I swear it’s just… the cutest shit you’ll ever see.”

“Oh my god that sounds disgusting,” Lu Han sneers and Yixing rolls his eyes.

“I know! But fuck, his scent, and that smile…”

“Wow you got it bad,” his friend observes while their professor walks in to start the lecture.

“I think he’s a regular at that coffeeshop…” Yixing mumbles.

Lu Han scoffs while he keeps his eyes set on the power point presentation that appears behind their professor, but keeps smiling, as if he’s encouraging his friend to try his luck a second time. Yixing tries to draw his attention on today’s topic, but while his hands fumble with his pen, and his professor starts talking about Agenda Setting theories, his mind darts away to that gummy smile which belonged to this tall and awkward dude. _Shit_.

***

“Okay, tell me again, what are we doing here?” Tao asks as he watches his friend roam around in the accessories section of H&M.

“I need to buy a scarf, for the last time!” Yifan whines and groans when he finds a white scarf with stupid Christmas patterns on it.

That’s surely not going to do it.

“Okay, but _why_.”

Yifan puts the scarf back neatly, then he turns around to his best friend with slumped shoulders. He looks like a kicked puppy, and Tao crosses his arms in front of his chest to wait for Yifan’s story.

“So, I was at the coffeeshop this morning…” he starts.

“Yeah, the usual deal.”

“… yeah,” Yifan admits, “And I ordered my usual stuff and there was this guy behind me and… I swear man… the moment he walked in and I smelled him I was on the fucking edge.”

“Oooooh, wait, you’re telling me you actually liked the smell of a dude?”

“Can we please _not go there_ ,” Yifan groans, trying to sound intimidating, but fails.

“Sorry. Go on.”

“Thank you… anyway, I set my order and while I was waiting for it, he just kept _staring_ at me, I literally felt his gaze on me, Tao, I was just really really bad… and then I looked up and…”

“It was the hottest Alpha you’ve ever laid your eyes on!” Tao finishes in excitement.

“It was fucking Zhang Yixing,” Yifan grunts and Tao’s mouth falls open.

For a second, nothing happens, but then Tao squeals and playfully bumps Yifan’s shoulder with his fist.

“Yifan! Going for only the _best_! Terrific taste! Zhang Yixing is such a heartthrob! And you’re sure that he noticed you? Wooooow, Yifan!”

“The story doesn’t end here, Tao, okay! Everything afterwards was horrible!”

So Yifan gives him a rundown of the events - him losing his complete composure, spilling his drink all over the counter, his own hand, and, of course, Zhang Yixing’s white scarf that is now completely ruined.

“Of course he was wearing white, because, what else! That’s just my luck!” Yifan whimpers and keeps scavenging the shelf for a new option, “That’s why I’m going to get him a new one. So he won’t kill me.”

“Oh, look at you! You’re so mindful!”

“Stop teasing me please, okay.”

Tao sighs, then starts helping his friend and checks the other side of the shelf. While they’re going through the assortment, the Beta speaks up:

“So, judging from your story, he might be _interested_ in you…”

“Oh please, calm your horses!” Yifan scoffs, “What would an Alpha like Zhang Yixing want to do with me?”

“Giving you his knot and have cute little pups with you!”

Yifan squeals and his ears turn red, which causes Tao to let out a roaring laughter.

“You’re an attractive guy, Yifan.”

“I’m the lowest of Omegas around campus, don’t you think that the captain of the swimming team is a little out of my league?”

“Come on, Yifan. Just because you’re an Omega doesn’t mean you’re at the end of the food chain and don’t deserve to find yourself a nice Alpha that cares for you.”

Yifan doesn’t answer and dives down to keep looking for a suitable substitute to give Yixing. Tao might be right, but he’s probably never going to really come to terms with his status. Coming from a long row of Alphas, it was a shock to the whole family that Yifan was presented as an Omega. His mother’s been lovely about it, but his father had made it clear that Yifan’s fallen from his grace. Being told that he’ll never be good enough for anything ever since that day, that mindset has manifested and won’t leave him alone.

“Plus, I know a shit ton of people who keep asking me about you. Like I said. You’re an attractive motherfucker, you don’t even notice how much power you can hold over those hormone-oozing Alphas. Because you’re too busy drowning in self-pity.”

“Wow, is that your way of comforting me? You’re an asshole,” Yifan snaps.

Tao grins, then holds up a white woollen scarf. Without a word, Yifan snatches it from his hands.

“Yixing’s got swimming practice at three tomorrow. I think you should pay him a visit and see for yourself. Plus - you’ll get to see your future mate half naked.”

“He’s not…!” Yifan screams, but loses his voice as Tao keeps cackling at him.

Not able to say anything anymore, Yifan takes off for the cashier, his ears as red as a traffic light.

***

Yixing’s always liked swimming. When he dives down under the surface and it’s only him and the sound of his heartbeat, and his body is surrounded by water, it’s like he’s finding a peace of mind in between his hectic schedule. He doesn’t mind the chlorine attacking the structure of his hair, requiring him to maintain a diligent hair care - he also doesn’t mind the smell of it, and that it sometimes still clings to him, even after taking a shower. He’s gotten used to it and all the other smells that come with his regular sessions, like wet towels stuffed in damp bags or overpowering Axe shower gel.

What he’s not used to is that other smell that comes through when he walks into the pool for his practice. His nostrils start vibrating and he takes a deep breath, trying to detect where it’s coming from. His head cocks into the direction of the audience area above them, and sees the usual girls that come to every practice. They’re Yixing’s personal fan club, always there to cheer for him, but that smell doesn’t belong to them.

Coffee and charcoal.

When he finally categorises what his smelling sense has been detecting, his eyes fall on the figure that sits offside the throng of girls. A tall guy, trying to make himself smaller by leaving his shoulders hanging, and blond hair that falls over his shy eyes. He’s got his arms wrapped tightly around something that looks like a sketchpad and when his gaze meets Yixing’s, he quickly looks down.

“Fuck me!” Yixing breathes.

“Nah, thanks,” Lu Han snickers as he walks past him, “You’re not my type. God, imagine all the fights we’d have… who of us would be actually _bottoming_?!”

“The world doesn’t revolve around you, Lu Han,” Yixing hisses, “The coffeeshop guy is here.”

Lu Han’s eyes widen and he looks up to the audience, then his mouth falls open.

“Ooooh, dude! I know him!”

“Huh?!”

Lu Han puts his hands on his slim hips and says:

“I know him… one of these Beta guys I know is his best friend.”

“What’s his full name?” Yixing demands to know, not even trying to act casual - his tone tells the other Alpha to spit the info out immediately.

“Wu Yifan,” Lu Han sing songs and before Yixing can continue to ask, he adds, “Yeah, he’s from _that_ Wu family. Homeboy is the only male Omega in a very ancient line of male Alphas. I heard his father is madly pissed about that.”

“Oh no,” Yixing slips, feeling somewhat sorry for him.

“Life works in strange ways,” Lu Han admits, then throws his arm around his friend and drags him along to their coach who tells them to start warming up, “But you know what? I think he’s here to see you.”

Yixing steals glances, but Yifan keeps his eyes set on his lap, before he slowly lowers his sketchpad and starts looking for something in his backpack. When the whistle of their coach cuts through the pool, Yixing tries to focus on his practice - and feels his Alpha hormones kick in, driven by the need of showing Yifan what he’s able to do and impress him.

Two hours later, Yixing is showered and changed, drained to the core. He beat his personal record, which hasn’t only gotten him praise from his coach and swoons from his Fanclub, but he also saw Yifan trying to hide his smile behind his sketchpad. He’s kept an eye on the Omega, even when his body cut through the water and he overtook his teammates by almost one whole lane.

“Man, I’m hungry,” Lu Han grunts when Yixing finally takes his bag out of his locker, the sign he’s ready to go, “Wanna grab something to eat?”

When they walk out of the locker room, Yixing smells Yifan again before he even sees him leaning against the wall. His posture tells the Alpha that he’d rather be somewhere else and he senses the Omega’s nervousness. It’s oddly arousing to him.

“Well, well, well…” Lu Han grins, “I think I’ll leave first.”

With a wink Lu Han disappears and leaves Yixing standing who cracks a smile and walks over to the other.

“Coffeeshop guy, hi!” He greets and the other nods to acknowledge him, “What brings you here?”

“Ummm,” Yifan mumbles, trying to find words, but seeing Yixing makes him choke.

So, instead of trying to find coherent sentences, he pulls out the scarf and hands it over wordlessly. Yixing frowns and shoots Yifan a questioning look.

“I… I’m sorry about ruining your scarf, so I bought a new one for you,” Yifan mumbles, feeling heat rise from his stomach into his face, and he curses himself for being such a lame idiot.

“You… didn’t have to do that…” Yixing says, somehow touched by the gesture.

“Yeah, no, really, please, just take it.”

Yifan keeps holding up the scarf, and Yixing finally takes it. He needs to admit, he’s been feeling kind of cold the whole day, since his other scarf is still soaking at home, a lame attempt at trying to save it. He immediately wraps it around his neck, burying his chin in it and gets hit full load by Yifan’s scent. It sends shivers down his spine and he needs to bite down on his bottom lip to contain himself.

“Charcoal,” he suddenly says and Yifan looks up to him with a startled look on his face, “Why do you smell like charcoal?”

“I… what…?”

“I get why you smell like coffee, but the charcoal thing is just beyond me,” Yixing says.

Yifan is so flustered about the fact that someone can actually pin point his scent, he opens his mouth to launch an explanation, but horribly fails to do so. He can only lift his sketchpad as a response.

“Oh! You’re an artist!”

The Alpha snatches the sketchpad out of Yifan’s hands, who whimpers and spurts out:

“Please, those are only sketches, they’re not good!”

Yixing doesn’t listen though and opens the sketchbook, looking at several drawings of people that Yifan’s probably seen somewhere at campus and in the streets. Yixing is not one of the artistic guys, so he’s genuinely impressed by what Yifan just called ‘not good’.

 _Can this guy get any cuter?_ Yixing thinks to himself, but refrains from voicing that thought.

“Do you study art?” He asks instead and skims through the pages.

“Yes.” Is the short answer.

Yixing senses that Yifan is highly uncomfortable, and feels himself getting unnerved. He doesn’t want him to be like that in his presence. Maybe it’s just because Yifan is a shy guy, so he decides to try and break the ice and eventually have a go at him. Asking him for his number just like that will probably not work in his favour and will do more harm than good, resulting in Yifan running away. He puts the sketchpad under his own arm, keeping it hostage, and says:

“Coffee-boy, I’m hungry, let’s go have dinner.”

Without further ado, he turns on his heels and walks for the exit.

“Hey… wait…! My…!”

Yifan follows him out into the cold while Yixing keeps grinning at his marvellous idea to trick the cute Omega into a dinner date like that.

“You can’t just take my stuff!”

“Relax, you’ll get it back after we’ve eaten.”

“I…”

“Do you like noodles? I know a good shop near campus.”

“You…”

“Great!”

Yifan has no other option than to follow Yixing to the noodle shop where they grab the last free table and place their orders. Yixing keeps skimming through Yifan’s sketches, whose cheeks are flushed red in embarrassment, especially when the Alpha discovers the sketches he made during his swimming practice.

“Do I really look like that?” Yixing asks and holds up a picture of his rough body outlines, positioned on a starting block to dive into the water.

“Who says it’s you?” Yifan manages to shoot at him, and is surprised at his own comeback.

“I have a gut feeling.”

“It’s a faceless sketch… body studies…”

“Sure,” Yixing chuckles, then rips out the piece of paper.

“What are…?!”

“I’m keeping it until you give me a proper drawing!” Yixing sing songs, folds the paper, and lets it slide into the pockets of his coat that’s hung over the back of his chair.

Yifan is at loss for words but then again, he can’t act like he’s surprised at all. This is Zhang Yixing sitting opposite of him. He’s one of the lead Alphas at campus, and he’ll take whatever he wants. And he probably gets everything he wants.

“Why are you studying art?”

“Umm… I just… I’ve always had a thing for it, I guess.”

“So you’re a natural or something?”

Yifan snorts.

“The total opposite. Just because I like drawing and sketching doesn’t mean I create true art.”

“Oh, don’t be so hard on yourself,” Yixing clicks his tongue in disapproval and goes through the sketches again, “I think those are cool. Do you have more?”

“Of course I do,” Yifan answers and Yixing’s eyes light up.

Without saying anything, he gets his phone and opens a new contact. Then he pushes the device over the table into Yifan’s direction.

“Then you need to show me more on our second date.”

“You… wait, that’s a date here?!”

“Wow, you’re oblivious. I like that.”

Yifan grunts and feels his insides burn up, but he’s not sure what kind of emotion causes this. It could be embarrassment, but also a much more positive feeling because it doesn’t happen a lot that a good looking Alpha like Yixing wants to get his number. Yifan grabs the phone and types in the according digits, pressing his lips together because he feels a stupid smile creeping up on his face which he tries to hide. When he hands the phone back, Yixing dials the number and Yifan’s own phone next to him goes off.

“Save me under ‘Future Mate’.”

“God, you’re full of yourself!” Yifan whines.  
Yixing laughs and Yifan takes a deep breath to calm his heart rate down. Yixing’s laugh sounds so endearing to him, it’s almost embarrassing. He’s glad when the waitress arrives and brings them their ordered meals, which spares him any more pick up lines that he’s not prepared for. Yixing basically inhales the food, starved out from the practice while Yifan barely has any appetite.

Yifan tries to steal subtle glances at the Alpha, and feels his heart beat faster when Yixing’s dimple appears while he chews on his noodles. Strands of his black hair fall into his sharp eyes and the food brings some colour back into his face. With rosy cheeks, he looks up to Yifan.

“You’re not hungry?” He asks, mouth still half full.

“Ummm… not really.”

Yixing tilts his head, then looks into his bowl that’s almost empty and says after he’s swallowed his last bite of noodles:

“Do you mind if I have yours then?”

“No. Take it.”

“Nice!”

He flashes Yifan a thankful smile and Yifan feels his insides turn into goo. He can’t help but smile back as the giddiness radiates through his whole body and pushes his bowl over to him. The Alpha grins and before Yifan can react, he puts his hands over Yifan’s that are still holding on to the porcelain. The touch makes Yifan’s hair stand on edge - even though Yixing’s hands look so delicate and gentle, they put a firm pressure on his own, dominating him easily that way. The Omega suppresses a whimper, and hopes that the piping sound that still escaped his throat gets drowned in the noise of the clattering tableware and conversations around them.

Yixing feels the very same strange attraction he felt at the coffeeshop. He can’t say exactly what it is that makes him slightly dizzy and lightheaded when he feels Yifan shuddering under his touch and he looks up to him, only to realise that the other’s ears are turning red. _Shit, fuck, that’s too cute, stop it._

“How’d you know my schedule?” Yixing asks as he, reluctantly though, pulls the bowl closer to him and out of Yifan’s hands.

“Please, everybody knows that the swimming team has practice at three. And everybody knows who you are. So I put one and one together,” Yifan answers, skipping the info that it was actually Tao telling him.

“Great! Then we don’t have to go through this dreary part where I bore you with details about me!” Yixing cries out as he keeps shovelling Yifan’s noodles into his mouth. “We can move on to the much more interesting part where you tell me about you!”

“I… I don’t think there’s anything interesting about me to tell,” Yifan blocks which makes Yixing grunt.

“I don’t believe that,” Yixing retorts, “Like… I think you’re a regular at that coffeeshop, right? Why?”

“Umm… I just go there every day.”

“Yeah, sure, I get that, but _why_?” Yixing asks and rolls his eyes.

Yifan fumbles with the sleeves of his black sweater, then he finally opens his mouth to explain:

“It’s just… I like the atmosphere. It’s not crowded and loud, which is great when you want to work on papers and stuff. Also, they make the best Caramel Latte on campus… I’ve tried the other coffeeshops too, but I don’t like their versions.”

The Alpha smiles when he seems to finally have found access to the other, so he keeps asking questions until a full conversation comes into rolling. The initial nervousness Yifan felt fades and he loosens up, mostly because he begins to understand that Yixing really wants to know more about him. He doesn’t make fun of the things Yifan tells him, and encourages him to keep talking.

Yixing loves hearing Yifan talk. That’s basically everything he can think of. When Yifan’s deep voice carries over the table to him, he thinks that this is everything he wants to listen to for the rest of his life. He catches himself thinking about how Yifan’s voice may sound when he gets overly excited and wants to share that excitement with him. Or when a tone of sadness swings along with his words that only the Alpha is able to eliminate. His mind starts wandering off to how Yifan sounds when his heat hits him and he keeps begging his Alpha for help - and how his pleasured screams might sound when Yixing gives him what he needs. Yixing wants to hear all of that. _Especially_ the last.

Patience is a virtue, though. So Yixing must take it one step at a time. Today, he established a good base for the coming, and it only strengthened his want for the Omega. When he’s finished his bowl, he gets the waitress over to pay for both.

“You don’t have to do that,” Yifan says.

“Well, you didn’t really eat anything, so it wouldn’t be fair for you to pay your order,” Yixing says and shrugs his shoulders.

It makes sense, and it’s not a lame attempt to flirt with him, so Yifan lets Yixing pay. They exchange some smiles, and Yixing is almost 100% sure that he’s got Yifan right where he wants him to. When he’s going to suggest going on a date together, he can hardly imagine the other one saying no.

“So, Yifan,” Yixing says and gets up. Yifan watches as Yixing puts on his coat, grabs his bag and leans over the other one, one hand supported on the table, “I’ll see you around.”

Yixing is so close, Yifan smells the chlorine of the pool and the mint shampoo he’s used to wash his hair with. His skin starts tickling as Yixing leans in even closer, and their cheeks brush against each other. Both of them get hit by the other’s scent and even Yixing, who’s shown off as overly confident the whole time, gets weak in the knees for a split second. 

“I’ll text you,” he finally says softly, then walks out of the restaurant, leaving Yifan all by himself who feels his heart pounding hard against his ribcage.


	2. PT II

***

Yixing doesn’t even wait for a whole day to text him. Not even a week later, he takes Yifan out to a classic cinema date, followed by another week of Yixing courting the Omega at his best abilities. He picks Yifan up from his classes, goes out of his way to get him some Caramel Latte in between his lectures, sends him messages to wish him a good night and a good morning - all of which makes Yifan weak in the knees until he gives in and accepts Yixing as his mate with a shy smile on his lips.

Yifan’s never been mated before, and even though he admits that it’s a nice feeling, he still can’t quite believe that it’s Zhang Yixing who’s with him. He doesn’t even dare to tell his parents, because he can hear his father’s snarky remark in his head already.

“ _You_? Mated with _such an_ Alpha? Well then, enjoy while it lasts, he’ll soon hop over to another one once he’s grown tired of you.”

And no, he doesn’t want the thing he has with Yixing to be spoiled by his father. He doesn’t want this to be spoiled by anyone, so he keeps the whole thing on the lowest profile possible. The only person he talks to about this is Tao, begging him to not make a big deal out of it, but when he tells him, Tao just lets out one of his loud and obnoxious cackling laughters and says:

“Dude, your Alpha is going around telling everyone how cute his new mate is. You may want to tell _him_ to not make a big deal out of it.”

Because Yixing is just so head over heels for the other, his Alpha instincts tell him to make it known that Yifan is his now. He may not have claimed him (yet, but he’s caught himself daydreaming about being bonded with Yifan and raising little pups in a nice little house), but that’s secondary for the time being, as long as people know to back off from the tall dorky Omega. And that’s harder than it seems. Because, even if Yifan thinks otherwise, he’s quite a head turner. Physically, he doesn’t fit into the small and fragile Omega norm. He’s tall with broad shoulders and strong arms, something that strikes people rather with the word Alpha. But then people notice his scent, and the sweet endearing note of his pheromones. He starts blushing when given attention, is soft-spoken, and friendly, a nurturing type that cares for his friends any given chance. His whole character screams Omega into other people’s faces, and that’s why he’s so interesting. A walking contradiction. A paradox that people want to understand and discover. Yixing is glad that he’s the one getting to discover him. In slow steps, though.

A few weeks into them dating each other, Yifan sits in the working room of the library with Tao working on one of his papers. They try to be diligent students for once, but everything they’re doing is only pretending like they get stuff done and roaming to the cafeteria every 20 minutes to get a snack or some coffee. It’s rather frustrating, but Yifan still has enough time until his paper’s deadline which is nice for a change. He usually avoids his responsibilities until the very last minute.

“Oh sweet Jesus, this is fucking…” Tao curses under his breath and rubs his neck.

Yifan looks up from his laptop and raises his eyebrows.

“Ugh, don’t mind me, I’m just annoyed,” his friend says and lets his neck crack, “How’s it going for you?”

“Hmm… it’s… going… but not that well either,” Yifan says and looks at his own document.

Tao grunts but writes another sentence for his paper, looking like he’s not convinced about his doing either, and then Yifan detects Yixing’s smell. He sits up straight and sets his eyes on the staircase that leads to their floor.

“Wow, what…” Tao starts, but then seems to get it. “Oh. Is your _Alpha mate_ coming?”

“Can you please stop emphasising the word so much …”

“Dude. He might not have knotted you yet but you two are so disgustingly in love, everybody knows it’s bound to happen… so get over it.” When Yixing does appear at the entrance of the group work room, Tao adds, “Well, now I smell him too.”

Yixing walks straight over to them and Yifan feels a huge smile creeping up on his face. Yixing returns it, flashing him his dimple, and the Omega suppresses a swoon. The power Yixing has over him is almost creepy, even for Yifan, but one look at the other makes him forget about all the second guessing he keeps having about their relationship.

“Baby boy,” Yixing greets and places a coffee cup next to Yifan while he grabs a chair with the other hand to sit down next to him, “I brought you something.”

Tao shudders at the pet name and gets back to his assignment. Yifan grabs the coffee cup and the smell of coffee and caramel fills his nostrils.

“I was passing by that coffee shop and thought you’d need one after you told me you’re going to spend the whole day in the library working on your paper,” Yixing explains and opens the lid of the cup. “Look, I even asked them to put some extra caramel drizzle on top.”

“You’re cute,” Yifan says with a smile and watches how Yixing puts some of the drizzle stuck to the inside of the lid on his finger.

“Taste it, baby.”

Yifan freezes on the spot and starts stammering:

“You… you want me to… lick your finger?”

“Wooooh, stop it right here!” Tao yodels and waves his hands, “Keep your sexual shit away from me! Or at least wait until I’m gone copying some pages!”

With that, he gets up on his feet and grabs one of the many books he’s got piled up next to him. Yixing chuckles when the Beta strides off and leaves them alone at the table. When he’s out of sight, Yixing lifts his finger again that’s coated with the golden brown and sticky syrup.

“Are you serious?” Yifan asks and feels his cheeks redden.

“I am,” Yixing answers.

“But… people…” Yifan stammers and looks around him where other students are hunched over books and laptops.

“So what? Let them look - then they’ll know you belong to me.”

Yifan bites his bottom lip and feels excitement rattling through his body. He’d always thought he wouldn’t like someone being this possessive over him, but every time Yixing insists on showing others that they’re together, Yifan almost immediately complies.

He needs to build up some courage though, because he knows that people talk about him. A lot of people don’t get why Zhang Yixing would date a weird and introverted Omega from the Fine Arts Faculty, and Yifan, to be honest, doesn’t quite get it either. In his mind, it makes absolutely no sense that Yixing has chosen _him_ , out of all the people that Yixing could date.

With a last look over his shoulder, Yifan finally obeys and puts his lips around Yixing’s index finger. The sweet taste of caramel fills his mouth, paired Yixing’s scent and the Alpha’s low approving groan when Yifan licks the rest of the drizzle off his finger. Yifan shivers, but forces himself to pull his head back and release the other one.

Yixing feels heat stirring up his insides, and even though he really doesn’t want Yifan to stop sucking on him - hell, he also kind of wants him to suck his dick right now - he reckons it’s for the best to let the flirting end here. Yifan presses his lips together, and the light of his laptop desktop enhances the colour of his flushed cheeks.

“Why did you come here anyways?” Yifan then asks to change the subject and ease the sexual tension between them.

“I felt like seeing you,” Yixing answers simply and puts his head on Yifan’s shoulder, “Wanted to check up on my Omega before I have to hop to my lecture. How’s your paper coming in?”

“It’s… coming in okay,” Yifan says.

“Good boy.”

The praise lifts Yifan’s spirits and a smile creeps on his face. Yixing scoots a little closer and makes their thighs touch while he gently rubs his neck against Yifan’s. It makes the Omega release a giggle and he asks:

“What’s that for now?”

Yixing usually scents him when there’s someone around them who imposes a thread, according to Yixing. He sees rivals everywhere and in everyone. Even Lu Han has to suffer under his jealous fits, and that’s only because he dares to chatter it up with Yifan when he picks Yixing up from swimming practice. Yixing is not pushy or aggressive about it, and he’s not being an abusive asshole like other Alphas, but every time when the intruder is gone, Yixing rubs their necks or wrists against each other, just to mark his territory. It’s cute in a way, because Yixing would never admit that he’s doing it out of jealousy. Actually, he scents Yifan, and then just walks away like nothing happened. And Yifan just really likes being scented - he loves being surrounded by Yixing’s odour and carrying it with him the whole day, so he never stops him.

“This day was draining and I need to refuel for that last lecture.”

The Alpha buries his nose in the curve of Yifan’s neck and takes a deep breath, drowning in that wonderful scent of his Omega. Coffee. Charcoal. Now a slight hint of caramel. Yixing will probably never be able to go one more day without it.

“God. You’re cheesy,” Yifan responds but tilts his head to the side to give the other more access.

“That’s your doing. I wasn’t like this before I met you.”

“So I tamed the Alpha, huh?”

“Sort of,” Yixing says and sits up again. With a last look on the time stamp on Yifan’s laptop, he sighs and adds, “I need to go, baby boy. Have dinner with me tonight, please.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“My roommate’s out on an excursion, so I thought about take out and have dinner at my place?”

Yifan hesitates. He’s gone over to Yixing’s dorm room to see him a few times by now, but he’s never come over in the evening, and most of the time, Yixing’s roommate was there too or about to bust in. He’s not sure if Yixing asks him over to just spend time together or if he wants to seize that opportunity and get him caught in his sheets.

Yixing seems to sense Yifan’s concerns and caresses the Omega’s cheek with the back of his hand.

“Don’t worry, Yifan. I’m not trying to lure you into sex… it’s a week before that competition after all.”

“What does that have to do with…?” Yifan begins and Yixing chuckles.

The Alpha starts playing with a strand of Yifan’s hair, and while he keeps his eyes focused on how Yifan’s hair shimmers in the light of the room, he explains:

“Weird tradition. We’re not supposed to have sex a week before a competition so we’re… I don’t know… more competitive or something. I personally think it’s just an excuse to let us focus on practice and not waste time with bitches. Or mates.”

“And you actually follow that rule?” Yifan asks with a raised eyebrow.

“What’s with that tone?!” Yixing roars, “I’m the captain of that team! Of course I follow that rule, who else is going to be a role model for these sorry asses?”

“Relax, I was just teasing…”

Yixing wrinkles his nose, but then buries it in Yifan’s hair.

“If you want me to break that rule though…”

“Don’t make me go into forced heat, okay. I still have two weeks to go.”

“That slips off your mouth so easily, yet you make me almost go into forced rut on a daily basis…” Yixing retorts and scoffs.

“M… me?! What am I even doing?!”

“Smelling like that. Looking at me with your puppy eyes. Lulling me in with your deep voice. I could go on and on!”

“I wasn’t even aware of that…” The Omega admits.

“See? You have no idea how hard you make it on me.”

Yifan is at loss for words, because he just cannot imagine having such an impact on another person. His mind still tells him that he has absolutely nothing to offer but some charcoal sketches and a weird sense of humour.

“To get back to the topic, baby,” Yixing finally says as he realises that he’s going to run late for class if he won’t get moving, “I’ll pick you up here after my lecture? You choose dinner.”

Yifan finally nods to give his consent and Yixing flashes him a smile. He leans over and gives Yifan a soft kiss before he takes off, not without winking at him one last time from the doorway of the room. Yifan is boasting with sappy feelings of love, and ignores the weird looks some other people in the room are shooting him. When Tao comes back a few minutes later, Yifan still has a huge smile plastered across his face.

“He left already?”

“He’s got a lecture.”

“Might be better. Even I get uncomfortable when you two love birds are getting It on, and mind you, I’ve always been the one to sit out your heat cycles with you.”

Yifan grunts at Tao’s comment who starts to giggle and fumbles a highlighting pen out of his bag to get over the pages he’s just copied.

“Hey, so, what’s going to happen when your next heat hits? I have the feeling I won’t be needed anymore.”

“I still have two weeks to wreck my brains about this, thanks,” Yifan mutters under his breath.

“What’s there to think about? You’re gonna fall on your knees and beg Yixing to knot you. Heck, dude, you begged me to give it to you before. And we’ve never been lovers. You turn into full-time slut when you’re in heat.”

“Ugh. I’m glad you didn’t give in to all of my begging.”

“You can be glad you found me. Anyone else would’ve knocked you up several times already.”

Yifan can’t even say anything against that. His heats are bad. Very bad. He misses classes and lectures because of it, and since he’s never had a mate to take care of him, it’s always been Tao to look after him.

Tao is a very special specimen among all the Betas. Yifan met him during his freshman year and when his first heat in college had hit him, he was more than surprised that Tao seemed to be rather unfazed by all the pheromones he was practically oozing out of his pores. When Yifan was rolling around on his bed covered in sweat, he silently gave him a cold towel and politely declined when the Omega asked him to ease his struggle, saying that he won’t ever lay a hand on him that way. Yifan had gotten frustrated, angry even, but when his heat was over, he was actually glad Tao hadn’t gone there.

To this day, Tao has pampered Yifan through his heats with non-sexual favours. That’s probably one of his traits that Yifan likes the most about him. He’s just not interested in sex. He’s never even considered mating, and when Yifan asked if that’s because he just hasn’t met the right person yet, Tao had shrugged his shoulders, but then, after giving it a thought, he had said:

“You know, I’m just really super asexual, finding the right person isn’t the issue here.”

It makes sense. Even for a Beta, Tao’s personal scent is very bland and neutral, almost undetectable. It’s almost like he’s missing those pheromones and he’s just not capable of having any sort of sex drive. Which does have its perks - Alphas don’t see Tao as a threat, because he’s not a serious rival to them, and Omegas like being around him, because they know he’s not interested in tailing them. He gets along with everyone and perfectly blends in.

“I mean, it’s not like getting you through your heats is what I love to do. I love you, but you’re really a handful when your hormones kick in. So I’m glad Yixing can take over that from now on. I also don’t believe he’ll be a dick about it, out of all the Alphas I know, he seems to be one of the decent ones,” his friend says when Yifan won’t respond to his other statement.

He turns the first page of his copies, then he adds:

“Plus, he’s super fucking in love with you. It’s probably going to be sweet love making instead of ruthless fucking.”

“God, can you please not talk like that?!” Yifan roars.

“Hey, I was complimenting him. Like, I trust that guy around you when you’re oozing slick. I wouldn’t let you near anyone else though.”

Yifan gives up with a sigh. Then, he looks over his laptop monitor to his friend and when their gazes meet, Yifan smiles at him and says:

“Thank you though.”

“No need to thank me, bro,” Tao retorts. While he goes back to his reading, he nonchalantly adds, “Give me a heads up though, just in case you’re gonna fuck in our room.”

“Wow, you’re really a dick.”

“Always at your service!”

***

Almost two hours later, Yixing appears again, having Lu Han follow him on his heels.

“Baby,” Yixing greets Yifan and ignores Tao altogether, “Let’s go.”

“Wow, hi Yixing, I’m glad to see you too!” Tao snorts and Lu Han plops down on the chair next to him, suppressing a chuckle.

While Yifan packs up, Yixing just nods into Tao’s direction to acknowledge him.

“Don’t take it personal, Tao,” Lu Han says and pats the Beta’s shoulder, “The lecture left him cranky and he needs his little Omega to lift his spirits. Not even my delightful presence seems to put him into a better mood.”

“Cocky bitch,” is everything Yixing has to say to him and when Yifan finally gets up and puts on his coat, he simply holds out his hand for Yifan to grab it.

“Cheesy,” Lu Han scoffs as he watches the other two guys intertwining their fingers and flashing soft smiles at each other and Tao slowly nods to show his support for him.

“Do you have plans for dinner? I could grab something to bite… I’m starved out and if I have to eat another bad sandwich from the cafeteria, I might throw the first hissy fit of my life” Tao then asks him as he carelessly throws his papers and books into his backpack.

“Sounds cool. I was counting on Yixing, but seems like he’s… going to be engaged with someone else…”

“Right, because I can’t stand your ugly face anymore,” Yixing retorts and pulls at Yifan’s hand to guide him out of the room.

“I’m going to drown you in the locker room showers, you asshole!” Lu Han grunts, but Yixing ignores the banter and leaves with Yifan on his heels.

When they step out, both of them shudder in the cold December wind. Yifan lets out a mewl and buries his face deeper in his scarf.

“I know, horrible, isn’t it?” Yixing grunts and puts their hands into the pocket of his coat while they make their way to his dorm.

On their way, they stop by one of the restaurants on campus and get some take out, knowing the food will be half cold when they’ll have reached Yixing’s room. It doesn’t matter much to either of them though, because the food isn’t the most important thing that evening. The food is secondary and only there to fill their empty stomachs.

When they finally reach their destination, Yifan’s fingers that were holding on to the plastic bag containing one part of their food are all red and stingy from the winter cold. When he puts the bag on Yixing’s desk, he can barely move them. Yixing, who is busy throwing some of his clothes on his bed into his closet, notices Yifan’s painful grimace in the corner of his eyes. Throwing his coat over the chair in front of his desk, he says:

“You should get gloves.”

He grabs Yifan’s hand and carefully rubs it between his hands, before he kisses several knuckles, thus bringing back the warmth into the digits, and overall into Yifan’s whole body.

“Why should I bother to get gloves when I have you to take care of that?”

Yixing chokes on his on saliva when Yifan drops the cocky comment, and Yifan responds with a bright laughter and a big smile, knowing very well that he makes Yixing melt like that. The Alpha groans and continues to unpack their take out.

“Wu Yifan, I’m telling you, I may not be around every time your limbs almost freeze off your body…!”

“Sorry, but, does that mean you don’t want to take care of me anymore?” Yifan asks jokingly.

“What kind of question is that!”

“A legitimate one,” Yifan says and throws his arms around Yixing’s hips, only to place his head on his shoulders, “I mean, I want my Alpha to take care of me…”

Yixing’s hands start shuddering at the last part and he almost lets the chopsticks clatter onto the table that he pulled out of the plastic bag.

“What happened for you to talk like that? Are you trying to seduce me here?”

“That’s what your filthy mind tells you, not mine,” Yifan responds and takes a deep breath while burying his nose in Yixing’s sweatshirt.

Yixing chuckles and hands over the food for his boyfriend, nodding into the direction of his bed. Yifan takes the take out bags and sits down on the mattress, taking a long look around Yixing’s part of the room. As straight forward as Yixing is, so is his room. Medals and certificates of competitions are neatly hung up on the wall, while his bed is kept in simple grey bedding. There’s exactly one pillow. His laptop is carelessly placed on the nightstand next to the bed, buried under a few books and a desk lamp. Compared to Yifan’s room, that somehow has become a substitute for his nest at his parents’ home and is draped with pillows and blankets, it’s cold and uncomfortable.

The Omega tries to ignore that though and they proceed to empty the plastic boxes, accompanied with the occasional chatter and laughter you’d have over dinner. Only when they’ve thrown the empty boxes into the trash and Yixing resurfaces his laptop from under the stack of books to choose a movie for them, Yifan allows himself some judgement.

“I don’t get how people live like this,” he says.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Please, you’re inviting your Omega over and you have _one_ pillow? Step up your game!”

“Oh.”

Yixing’s eyes get big, then he inhales the air around him sharply. He puts his laptop aside and dives down in front of his bed to check underneath for any more pillows and blankets.

“I have… something around here…”

What he surfaces are two more quilts and one more pillow which he hands over to Yifan with a proud smirk, but Yifan seems rather unimpressed.

“This is what I have to work with?” He asks with a raised eyebrow, then just shakes his head in disappointment.

“Dude! I don’t nest!” Yixing tries to defend himself as Yifan gets up and tries to set up the bedding in a way that he deems better.

“You’ve seen my bed. You know that I cannot survive on only two pillows!”

Whirling around on the mattress, Yifan fluffs the pillows and leans them against the head rest, then he proceeds to drape the quilts around him and Yixing.

“It’s just to make it a little more comfortable!” Yifan defends himself after his Alpha has thrown him a confused look, “I’m not going to turn your bed into my nest, for god’s sake!”

“If you did though, would that mean we’d get to spend every night together?”

“It would mean you’d have to sleep on the floor.”

“Wow. That hurt. Are you never going to let me into your nest?”

He tries to sound like he doesn’t mean this in a serious way, but Yixing is only half-joking. What Yifan said is a clear sign that they’re not quite where he wants them to be. Yifan doesn’t trust him enough yet to let him into his nest, and he reckons it’s going to take a little while until Yifan lets that happen. He doesn’t believe it’s never going to happen, but it still scratches at his ego.

“I’m still working on it, okay! When I let you in, I need it to be perfect, and it still needs improvement!” Yifan whines and fluffs the pillows once more. “It’s good when I’m in there alone, but it’s not fitted for two persons yet. So patience, please!”

Yixing doesn’t say anything for a moment, and cracks a smile when he senses that Yifan is getting nervous because he wouldn’t answer. With a smirk, he turns back to his laptop and says:

“You said ‘when’, so I’m okay with that for now.”  
   
As a response, Yifan snuggles into him, his head placed on Yixing’s chest.  
   
"So!" Yixing raises his voice again and the sound of it roars in his chest, "What do you want to watch, love?"  
   
Yifan shrugs his shoulders.  
   
"I don't care much. I'm fine with anything."  
   
Yixing scrolls through his Netflix account and heaves a sigh. Most of the things that Netflix suggests are TV shows that he's watched halfway through. Some of them, he's got abandoned already, and others are reserved for the semester holidays when he's got time for a binge watch again, and none of those option seem great for now.  
   
"What kind of movies do you like?" Yifan suddenly asks as Yixing has checked the description of a Korean horror movie and clicked it away right afterwards.  
   
"Oh, I'm not that picky about movie genres," Yixing says, and then adds, after a moment of thinking, "What I absolutely hate are those dramas in which one person gets like... super sick and dies in the end and it's just a big cry fest before the credits start rolling."  
   
"Why's that? Does that go against your Alpha nature?" Yifan teases with a smirk and causes Yixing to roll his eyes.  
   
"No. It's not that," he then answers.  
   
Yifan lifts his head and supports it with one of his arms to take a look at the other. He doesn't ask, but Yixing knows that he'd like to know the reason. Yixing's gaze darts away from Yifan's face to the screen of his laptop and says:  
   
"Well. It's just... my mother died of cancer and those movies are just... it's not the reality. People romanticise things that shouldn't be in the first place and it annoys me. Death is not pretty actors crying and still looking on fleek. It’s a weak person on a hospital bed and ugly sobbing and exhaustion.”  
   
Yifan shoots up into a straight seating position and feels his heart clench.  
   
"Your... your mother died?!" He exclaims, his face falling in shock.  
   
"It happened ten years ago, I'm good," Yixing tries to calm the other down, "Really."  
   
"Love... I'm so sorry."  
   
Yixing has heard those 'I'm so sorries' a lot of times already, but when Yifan says it, it's like the first time he actually believes it. The sincerity in Yifan's words make him crumble a little.  
   
"No, really, don't be. I was eleven. I didn't even... fully understand what was going on."  
   
Yifan throws himself back into the sheets and scoots close to him again.  
   
"I'm good, Yifan. Don't worry. I've moved on, my mom wouldn't have wanted me to be sad forever."  
   
Over the years, Yixing has gotten detached to the whole topic, actually. When he talks about his mother, it's like he's talking about someone else, which is probably just a weak defence mechanism to cope with the loss. He loved her dearly, and when she was gone, he was mostly angry at the whole world for taking her away. Now that he's older, he knows that there was nothing anyone could've done. It was her time to go, sadly. He would've loved for her to be around when he graduated from high school and attend his graduation ceremony. He would've loved for her to see him off to college or send her a picture of his first won medal in a swimming competition. He'd love to tell her about Yifan, and ask her for tips on how to please a sensitive and soft Omega like Yifan is. But it is the way it is.  
   
"How did your father do?"  
   
"Trying his best. But he's not mated with anyone else again so far, even though I've been telling him to see other people. I think he'd need it."  
   
Yifan kisses Yixing's cheek, and the simple gesture makes Yixing melt on the inside.  
   
"I bet she'd be very proud of you."  
   
"I do hope so."  
   
He feels Yifan's lips on his cheekbones again, and then the Omega turns silent. Yixing senses that he's gotten sad over the news and buries his hand in Yifan's hair to caress his head.  
   
"Baby boy, don't worry about me. I'm doing fine."  
   
Yifan stays silent, because he is, indeed, sad. In his eyes, Yixing is the most deserving person on this earth, and for someone so great to be experiencing a loss this grave, seems highly unfair and upsetting to him.  
   
"I guess I'll just love you even more now," Yifan then announces  
   
"Ugh! Baby!" Yixing lets out a long howl as a wave of giddy feelings dwell up inside of him and he pushes Yifan's head into the neck of his curve, because he wants him even closer now. "What did I do to deserve you, huh?"  
   
"Please, I could ask the very same question," Yifan mumbles into Yixing's neck, but before Yixing can go on a rant about how great the other is, he says, "I feel like watching something funny. Like. The mood here is too low for my liking."  
   
"Your wish is my command."  
   
Yixing is glad about that request. He's not the best when it comes to actually talk about feelings or traumas from his past. It's not as bad when it's Yifan who listens to what he has to say, but that doesn't mean he has to unload all of his problems at once to him. Yifan would worry too much, and he doesn't want that.  
   
They decide to go for Deadpool, mostly because Yifan hasn't seen that one yet and Yixing actually likes it, not only for the humour but also the action sequences. He's relieved when Yifan laughs at the right moments and doesn't deem the action too blunt or stupid - Yifan kind of strikes him like an arthouse kind of guy, someone who enjoys weird artsy movies that only air in small theatres and that stuff, but he seems to also enjoy a good mainstream blockbuster. That’s good.  
   
"What time is it?" Yifan asks as the ending credits roll and yawns as he realises how tired he is.  
   
"Why do you ask?"  
   
The Omega rolls his eyes at the counter question and explains:  
   
"Maybe, because I have a mandatory early class tomorrow and I still need to get home."  
   
"I have swimming practice at eight, we could get up together!"  
   
"Ugh!"  
   
Yifan averts his gaze from Yixing, knowing very well that if he gives in, he'll have a hell of a stressful morning.  
   
"I'll bring you to your dorm in time for class so you can change clothes," Yixing says and his fingertips ghost over Yifan's exposed neck, "I can't afford to be late to practice, and I also can't afford to get there not having slept the night prior, so no bullshitting. I don't want you to be walking home at this hour of the day."  
   
"It's ten in the evening..." Yifan says after taking a look at the clock. "On a weekday."  
   
"Creeps lurk around at every time of the day," Yixing shoots back.  
   
He senses that Yifan isn't too convinced, so he proceeds to kiss the tip of his nose.  
   
"Baby boy," he whispers, "I just want you to be save. And you're safest when you're with me."  
   
Yifan lets out a whiny groan. Of course he is. When Yixing is with him, there's nothing for him to fear. When he's in his arms, there's nothing for him to worry about.  
   
But still! He needs to go home!  
   
"Fine," Yixing pouts and pushes his bottom lip forward when he receives no reaction, "If you want to go home, then you'll have to allow me to bring you home."  
   
"No! You don't have to! I don't want you to go into that trouble, my dorm is literally a ten minute walk from yours!"  
   
"Then it shouldn't be a problem to bring you home!"  
   
When Yifan doesn't answer and huffs an annoyed breath, Yixing adds:  
   
"Look, it's easy - you're either going to stay over or I'll bring you home. End of debate. You choose what you're more comfortable with."  
   
Yifan steals glances to him from the corner of his eyes while Yixing's arm loosely rests on his hip.  
   
"I mean, I know my bed cannot possibly live up to your blanket fort, but you'd have me to cuddle."  
   
His grip gets a little tighter and he starts caressing Yifan's side with gentle pressure, just to give his words some more depth. It's also an attempt to make Yifan want to stay - not that he actively wants to manipulate him into giving in, it's just that he'd very much like to fall asleep with Yifan in his arms. He'd like to know how it feels like to have him close and wake up next to him in the morning. It's like a mini-practice for their time in the future.  
   
Plus, it's just really fucking cold outside. Thinking about having to go out again makes Yixing want to groan and curl up under the sheets even more.  
   
"Alright. Fine! I'll stay!"  
   
Yifan's decision makes Yixing smile widely, and Yifan himself isn't too sure why he actually agreed on sleeping over. He's not prepared at all. Heck, he doesn't even have another pair of pants with him, he usually isn't such a spontaneous guy - things like sleep overs have to be prepared, yet here he is, giving in to his Alpha's begging.  
   
Yixing tries to find clothes for Yifan to sleep in, but since he's the smaller of the two, that task takes them about twenty minutes until Yixing finds an old basketball shirt that somehow fits the other. He's tried basketball for his first semester along with the swimming, but eventually found out that water is more of his element and field of expertise.  
   
So wearing his boyfriend's shirt and an old pair of shorts, Yifan feels like he's not going to be able to sleep a lot - the smell he's covered in is just too nice, and he thinks of ways to bury his nose in the shirt without Yixing noticing it too much. He'll surely reek of chlorine and mint tomorrow, and Yixing won't have to scent him for another two days. That thought makes Yifan all gooey on the inside.  
   
"So! You wanna go to sleep, baby boy?"  
   
Yixing has changed himself into a plain white shirt and a pair of black sweatpants. He usually sleeps with only his boxers on, but figures that this might be too much for Yifan in the moment. Slow steps. It's taken him some time to court Yifan, so it will also take some time until Yifan is fully comfortable around him, even with small things like his barely existent night wear.  
   
"Yeah," Yifan answers, reckoning that they will take at least another hour to even fall asleep.  
   
When Yixing kills the lights, Yifan puts his head on the other's chest and throws his arms and one leg around him. Yixing keeps him close and buries his nose in his hair.  
   
"Good night then," Yixing mumbles.  
   
"Night."  
   
The Alpha is the first to fall asleep. Yifan can tell by the way his chest starts lifting in very deep and even breaths and he slow beating of Yixing's heart. He himself isn’t used to having another person next to him, and fears that moving too much will wake the other up. It is only when Yixing wraps his arms even tighter around him in his sleep that Yifan’s minor anxieties go away and he allows to get consumed by all the warmth and comfort Yixing’s body radiates. The last very clear thought Yifan has before dozing off is how in the world he has managed to go all those years without the Alpha.  
   
They wake up to Yixing's very shrill alarm which makes both of them grunt in disapproval. Yifan feels like he hasn't slept at all, but he's sure that he's dozed off every now and then at least. Yixing stretches his arms that have slightly grown numb due to holding them tightly around Yifan the whole night and lets out a groan.  
   
"Why..." he mumbles before a wide yawn parts his lips, "... why am I the captain of the swimming team?"  
   
Yifan's answer is a low chuckle because he's still trying to fight against another wave of fatigue. Yixing stretches his limbs, flexing his muscles while doing so, before he lets his arms flop down onto the mattress again.  
   
"You slept well?" He then asks the other.  
   
"Yeah," Yifan lies. ”Even with just one pillow."  
   
"Next time you're here, I'll provide better bedding," Yixing says and slowly sits up.  
   
He's usually slow in the morning, but the prospect of swimming practice and eventual punishments for running late gets him going.  
   
"Do you want to take a shower, baby?" He asks but Yifan shakes his head.  
   
"I'm just going to change clothes... I only have this class today so I'll just shower afterwards."  
   
"Only _one_ class? Man, I'm jealous!"  
   
What follows is some teasing and stupid banter while they change clothes and get ready. Yixing keeps his promise and walks Yifan back to his own dorm, holding on to his hand while doing so. The campus is still rather empty around this time of the day, with most of the students still being in bed, or skipping their early classes.  
   
The couple spends the walk in silence. Yixing keeps his mouth shut because he's still tired and dreads the coming two hours of practice, while Yifan just enjoys the simplicity of walking down the street with Yixing. Not having to talk makes it easy for him to concentrate on the feeling of Yixing's fingers laced in his own, which is just _so nice_ he can feel himself get greedy and wanting to have that feeling for the rest of his days.  
   
When they arrive at the entrance of the dorm, Yifan turns to the other.  
   
"Hurry, you're going to run late for class," Yixing says and tries to suppress another yawn threatening to part his lips.  
   
Yifan giggles at the sight as Yixing pulls down the corners of his mouth and wrinkles his nose. Both of his dimples are showing, which is rare, and so cute Yifan can't help but to feel super fuzzy and giddy on the inside.  
   
"You too though," Yifan answers and keeps his cocky comment to himself.  
   
Yixing nods, his facial expression giving away that he just really doesn't want to go, so Yifan decides to give him a kiss on the cheek and hopes it might motivate the other one.  
   
"I really liked last night. We should do that more often."  
   
The answer is a wide teeth-showing grin on the Alpha's face. Then, Yixing takes Yifan's face in his hands and kisses him, pulling him down so he doesn't have to get on his tip toes, because, by all means, he won't do that ever.  
   
"Anytime you want, baby boy," he then coos and pecks Yifan's lips one more time, before he realises that if he doesn't get going, he's sure as hell going to be late and will have to swim some extra laps.  
   
With a last wave of his hand, he dashes down the street and Yifan hurries to get changed himself. Tao is still half asleep when he enters the room and his roommate says:  
   
"So? Did he knot you?"  
   
"No!" Yifan squeals while he undresses and throws on the next best clean clothes he can find in his closet.  
   
"It surely smells like that. Even _I_ can tell that you reek of him," Tao grunts into his pillow, before he turns around to go back to sleep.  
   
Yifan can only manage to roll his eyes. Then he grabs the books he needs for his coming lecture and walks out of the room again.  
   
While he makes his way to his lecture, he realises that Yixing's smell indeed has worn off stronger on him than ever before. Another friend of his, who's more of an acquaintance and just sits next to him in classes so Yifan doesn't look like a complete loner, sniffles him when he sits down on his seat.  
   
"Huh. You and your Alpha seem to be getting it on just fine," he says with a wink, but before Yifan can clear the situation, their professor enters the room.  
   
While the time is passing, Yifan notices that the others in the course have picked up on the new intensity of Yixing's odour - he feels kind of embarrassed, especially when people throw him naughty grins when he accidentally makes eye contact with them. This is mostly due to the fact that Yifan just thinks that it's none of the other people's business. The relationship he has with Yixing is between him and the other, and others are not obliged to know what is going on at night when they're together. It angers Yifan to a certain degree, but he'd never say that out loud.  
   
He's dealing with that feeling for the rest of the class and on the way home, when he receives a message from Yixing.  
   
_Lu Han thinks we fucked because, quote, 'You smell like a coffeeshop in a fucking coal mine, it's disgusting’_  
   
Yifan pushes the main door to his dorm open with his shoulder while he types his answer:  
   
_Does that annoy you?_  
   
Yixing doesn't even wait for a second to write back.  
   
_Are you kidding?! That's the best thing he could've said. Your smell has worn off on me, and mine has worn off on you. That only means that I belong to you, and you belong to me. Lu Han's only jealous that he's still single and doesn't have such a great person like you. ♥︎_  
   
Yifan is glad no one's in the hallway to hear his long squeal and witness him almost smashing his phone on the floor.


	3. PT III

***

Yifan feels absolutely uncomfortable as he crouches on the sofa while other people roam around him. His eyes are glued to Yixing, who keeps getting dragged into one conversation after another, and while he’s really happy for him and his achievements today, he’d rather just be alone with him.

Around noon this day, Yixing and the rest of the swimming team won the swimming competition against a few other rivalling schools - Yifan has no idea about the rules and regulations of said competitions, but he still went to cheer for Yixing and watch him. Besides, Tao was there too, so he wasn’t completely alone and even had fun while watching the individual and relay races. Nevertheless, after Yixing and the rest of the team have all outdone the other competitors and their school was announced the winner, Yifan was glad it was over. He’s not made for such big social events, feeling very drained and looking forward to spend the rest of the remaining evening with his mate.

Well. That has been the initial plan, but then a few others of the team had announced that they’d be celebrating their victory at someone’s house whose parents were out of town. And Yixing, being the captain and the swimmer with the best results that day, needed to attend too. Yifan wasn’t too happy about that development, but tried to to play along. He is, after all, dating one of the lead Alphas who somehow has to show up on certain social gatherings.

“Sorry, babe,” Yixing had said after all of them were showered, changed, and ready to go, “We’ll be there for an hour or two and then we’ll leave, okay?”

The promise sounded like a good compromise, so Yifan nodded to give his consent and followed him out on the streets, while Lu Han and the rest of the team lead the way.

Now, Yifan is sitting in the middle of a god damn house party with a non-alcoholic drink in his hand and only one thought in his mind: _When can I actually leave?_

Besides his general social awkwardness and the resulting discomfort in his bones, there’s been a feeling boiling inside his stomach for a while now, and he fears that this might be one of the many first signs of him getting into heat. Just great. His heat wasn’t supposed to hit until next week, he’s always diligently tracked his cycles, and now this.

The Omega sighs and looks into his cup filled with iced tea which has the worst artificial peach flavour he’s ever tasted. In the middle of his thought process about how to ditch the party without upsetting Yixing too much, someone plops down next to him. He raises an eyebrow and looks at another guy from Yixing’s swimming team. Yifan doesn’t remember his name, but he’s tall and handsome, with a boyish smile that won’t quite fit to his muscular figure. An Alpha. And probably one of the more annoying ones.

“My god, Yixing is not taking care of you, boy,” he says.

“It’s okay, he’s busy,” Yifan dodges and the guy takes a big gulp out of his cup while his eyes keep resting on Yifan who tries to scoot a little further away from him as he remembers who the other one is.

Huang Jingyu. That is his name. And he’s got the reputation of picking up anything and anyone if they can’t escape his claws fast enough.

“If I were him, I wouldn’t let you out of my sight ever. The place is crawling with Alphas who just love to rut into the next best willing Omega.”

Yifan chokes on his drink and Jingyu seizes the opportunity - he gently punches Yifan’s back with his flat hand to help him breathe again, but when his coughing fit is under control, he just slips his hand over Yifan’s neck where it comes to a rest. His grip is firm, not too tight, but it makes Yifan uncomfortable nonetheless.

“Who… who says I’m willing…?” Yifan stutters and freezes under the other’s touch.

“Please, I have a sixth sense for this,” Jingyu says and leans closer.

Like with Yixing, Yifan can smell the faint scent of chlorine, but there’s another note swinging along with it that just repels him. He tries to pull his shoulders up to his ears to give the other no space to keep touching him, but Jingyu’s grip only gets tighter.

“You’re about to go into heat. I might just take you if Yixing keeps neglecting you like that.”

“Fuck off, Jingyu.”

Yixing’s voice makes Yifan ease up again and Jingyu puts his hands up into the air.

“I wasn’t doing anything!”

Yifan watches as Yixing puffs his chest to appear taller. His eyes turn dark and he slams his hand against the wall next to Jingyu’s head.

“Look, I know exactly that you’re a whore. Fuck off and leave Yifan alone. Get someone else to put your sad dick in.”

“Jeez, no need to act all bitchy. I was just having a conversation with your boy.”

“Yeah, conversation my ass, otherwise you would’ve kept your filthy hands off him. You touch him one more time and I’ll go feral on you.”

Jingyu rolls his eyes, acting like he’s unimpressed by the threat, but he slides to the side to get away from Yixing and gets up from the sofa.

“You should learn how to share, Yixing,” he pouts, “There’s a bunch of Alphas who think he’s cute.”

“And that’s exactly why I’m not sharing with you bastards, he’s _mine_ ,” Yixing responds and slips onto Yifan’s lap. While throwing one arm around his shoulders, he looks back to Jingyu and proclaims his last threat, “Leave or I’ll make you leave, Jingyu.”

His teammate leaves it at that and walks away to find another one to prey on. Yixing follows him with his eyes, and when the other one disappeared in the crowd, he leans over and rubs his neck against Yifan’s to get rid of the other Alpha’s scent.

“Baby boy,” he purrs as his attention snaps back to Yifan, “Sorry, I should take better care of you.”

“No… don’t… you probably want to celebrate with your team…” Yifan mumbles, but immediately gives into Yixing who kisses his cheeks and presses his body on to him, glad that he came and stepped in.

“Shush, baby,” Yixing grunts, “I’m horrible. Leaving you alone like this.”

“It’s really okay. You should go back… maybe… I should just leave first and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Yixing takes Yifan’s face in his hands, thus forcing him to look up. His upcoming heat makes him even more aware of how amazing Yixing’s body feels against his. His heart picks up its pace at Yixing’s touch, his skin starts burning where the Alpha’s hands are.

“Yifan, what’s going on?”

“I…” Yifan starts but a shiver runs through his whole body when Yixing starts caressing his cheeks with his thumbs in slow motions.

 _Fuck no I can’t have that right now_ , he keeps thinking. He didn’t imagine his heat to hit him on a god damn party, but that is exactly what’s happening as his hands get all sweaty and come to a rest on Yixing’s thighs. Need starts pulling at his chest and makes his lips search for Yixing’s. Yixing gives in and lets him, but takes over when he works his tongue into Yifan’s mouth who lets out a whimper at the sensation shooting through his body.

“Baby, are you going into heat?” Yixing mumbles against Yifan’s lips as he connects the dots of Yifan’s behaviour, his warm skin, and that new sweet smell coming from him into a whole picture.

Yifan squeezes out an affirmative noise and buries his hands in Yixing’s shirt. The Alpha presses his nose into the other’s neck and takes a deep breath to inhale the scent of his Omega, signalling need and lust which gets a hold of his own rational thinking. Yifan begins to breathe heavily as Yixing traces his jawline with his plump lips and gasps when he feels the other’s teeth grazing over his sensitive skin. _Fuck._

“That… doesn’t… help…” The Omega whines and feels his hips twitching.

The music and buzzing of the party gets muted in Yifan’s ears and all he hears is his own blood rushing through his body. His mind only spurts out one word - Alpha, Alpha, Alpha.

“It does help _my_ cause,” Yixing groans and slips his hand under Yifan’s sweatshirt, and almost automatically, Yifan bends his body into the direction where they are going.

He forgets that they’re still surrounded by a bunch of other people, mewling to signal Yixing that he needs more to satisfy the upcoming hunger rattling through his body and Yixing dives down again to swallow the moan breaking from Yifan’s throat with his lips. Even though he loves the sound, it’s not something he wants to be shared with other people. Those moans are solely for him to hear, and nobody else.

Yifan feels his cheeks flushing and his body heating up, making it hard to bear the layers of clothes on him as Yixing’s fingertips leave burning traces on his abdomen. Fuck.

“Yixing, please… I can’t…”

“Hello, it’s me!” Tao suddenly bursts in and throws himself next to them, “Your basic bitch to remind you that you two are super disgusting! Please take your fucking somewhere else!”

“This isn’t happening,” Yixing grunts and looks to Tao, “You little shit head!”

“I’m being serious,” Tao responds and pats Yifan’s head who starts sweating as his temperature keeps climbing, “I’m giving my pal here about fifteen more minutes until he starts ripping off his clothes. By then, he’ll be oozing slick and pheromones to knock you out cold from a ten feet distance. You don’t want him around a public space by then.”

“I’m still here, okay, don’t act like I can’t hear you!” Yifan screeches.

“I’m just stating the obvious. Bring your Omega home and take care of him.”

Yixing is still pissed that Tao just busted in like that, but has to admit that he really doesn’t want his Omega going into full heat with all those other Alphas around. He looks over his shoulder and starts noticing how they eye both of them, how their nostrils widen when they pass them and inhale Yifan’s scent, waking their more primitive instincts.

“Our dorm is closer, Yixing. Take him there, I’ll stay at your dorm room in return. Lu Han won’t mind I guess.”

“… alright. Thanks,” Yixing says and grabs Yifan’s wrist to pull him up, “Let’s go, baby.”

Yifan follows blindly and doesn’t even notice how they put on their coats and leave the house of whoever is the host of that party. The cold winter air doesn’t do anything to cool him down and Yixing can’t do anything but to watch helplessly as they get on the bus back to the dorm and Yifan tries to fight against his heat taking over him. He can’t let that happen in public - it would be too embarrassing for him.

“You’re doing great, baby,” Yixing whispers into his ear as Yifan throws himself into his arms and breathes hotly against his neck.

Tao wasn’t lying when he said Yifan would knock Yixing out cold - his sweet gluttony scent befuddles his mind and it takes all of his willpower to not let Yifan climb on his lap and thigh ride him. Even though that is exactly what Yifan is trying to do, one leg dangling between Yixing’s thighs, soft and weak mewls filling his ears. His dick keeps twitching at the way Yifan throws himself at him, but he reminds himself that he won’t go there en route to the dorm with other people scattered over the seats around them. Two young women in front of them steal occasional glances at them, one of them clearly picking up on Yifan’s scent, while the other one keeps typing on her phone, trying to ignore the two guys.

When the bus finally arrives at their stop, Yixing pushes Yifan out of there and drags him with him. Yifan’s pheromones diffuse a little in the air, making it a tad more bearable for Yixing to jockey him to the dorm building and in front of his door, where he pulls Yifan’s keys out of the pockets of his coat and opens it. Yifan stumbles in, almost literally ripping off the coat and his sweatshirt to get rid of the clothes that seem to burn his skin.

When the door falls shut behind Yixing, he’s not even given the chance to take off his shoes or his jacket. Yifan throws himself at him, baring his teeth against Yixing’s lips while he fumbles with the zipper of his jeans. His dick is so hard by now, it painfully curls against his pants and needs immediate relief. 

“Please, Yixing…” the Omega starts whining and gasps when he feels the other’s hand grabbing his butt and pressing their hips together.

“Easy, easy, baby boy,” Yixing breathes into Yifan’s ear, feeling his guts clench in desire as he feels the oh so prominent bulge in Yifan’s pants through the cloth of their jeans, “I’ll take good care of you, no need to rush.”

Yifan’s throat escapes a displeased grunt, but then, in between all of his raging hormones, he realises that this is not how he planned their first time to go down. He’s been worrying too much about the perfect set up to just simply be getting fucked against the wall.

And Yixing, even though he _does_ have the desire to rut into Yifan, doesn’t want this to happen either. He wants to be a good mate and spoil Yifan with his loving, not just bend him over the next best piece of furniture and knot him. It’s not what the Omega deserves. And it’s not what he’s going to get.

“Take it slow, yes?” The Alpha says and presses their foreheads together before their lips lock into a long and deep kiss.

Yifan nods when they part again, and even though he’s taking it down a few notches, he still huddles over to his bed which has been off limits for Yixing up until now. Yifan himself finds it very annoying that he can’t have the comfort of a whole room to himself to create the perfect nest like he has at his parents’ house. But university is kind of a desperate time and demands for desperate measures so he’s done his best to transform his bed into his own personal space with pillows and blankets, and has even gone so far to set up a curtain to be able to be all by himself, even when Tao is also in the room. It works. It’s not _perfect_ but Yifan can arrange himself with the situation for the time being.  
   
While Yifan sits down on the brink of the mattress, Yixing takes off his shoes and his jacket which he throws over the chair at Yifan's desk.  
   
"So?" He asks, not really sure if he's actually allowed to sit down next to the Omega.  
   
Last time he even tried to look over and launch a first approach, Yifan had let out a groan that told him to back off immediately. This time though, Yifan crawls over the mattress and disappears behind the curtain, saying:  
   
"Close the curtain behind you please."  
   
Yixing needs to bite his bottom lip to suppress a scream of victory and jumps over, plopping down right next to Yifan and kissing him hard on the lips before he shuts themselves out from the world. Yifan sinks back onto his back into the pile of pillows he's accumulated in the past semesters, picked up from flee markets and furniture shops. Yixing buries him with his weight, tangling his fingers in the other's hair while he kisses Yifan's jawline. Yifan whines when he proceeds to go down on his neck, kissing and nibbling at the skin, occasionally dipping his tongue over it.  
   
"Such a nice neck," Yixing coos and Yifan blushes at the compliment.  
   
"Y...you..." Yifan stammers, but gives up on shooting a cocky comment back to him.  
   
It's not like he's able to anyway. He's still wearing his sweatshirt and jeans, and his body is slowly overheating from not only his clothes, but also from the warmth Yixing is radiating, so he starts wiggling under the Alpha, tugging at the hem of his shirt.  
   
"Please, I really need to get rid of that," he whines and Yixing nods.  
   
In a swift movement, Yixing straddles Yifan's thighs and slips his hands under the fabric. He won't allow Yifan to strip himself off his clothes - he wants to do that. Yifan is like his present that he gets to unwrap now. And he wants to enjoy every second of it. In a slow but steady movement, he pushes the shirt up Yifan's torso until he reveals his bare chest. He hasn't seen Yifan without any clothes on yet, and he stops for a moment to marvel at Yifan's evenly complexed skin and lean body. Some might say he's lanky, and should gain some muscle, but Yixing is sure he's never seen a prettier person. Another impatient whimper from Yifan brings him back to reality, so he finally pulls the shirt over his head and tosses it to the side.  
   
Yifan, being the horribly self-conscious man that he is, isn't too sure if Yixing really likes what he's gotten. He awkwardly tries to shield himself with his arms, but Yixing grabs his wrists immediately and pins them down next to Yifan's head.  
   
"Don't baby, I need to look at you."  
   
"Can you maybe not look for _that long_ I'm really starting to overheat!" Yifan responds, getting awfully aware of his throbbing dick in his pants that is not getting enough attention at the moment.  
   
Yixing chuckles, then dives down to Yifan's collarbones, tracing them with soft and wet kisses that send goosebumps all over the Omega's body. His teeth graze over the skin, his lips suck at the outlines of the bones - the bruising of those spots will later be some kind of marking, and Yixing's stomach roars in excitement only thinking about the fact that that was his doing. Mine.  
   
The Alpha takes his time to explore the body beneath him, appreciating every inch of skin which heats up under his touches. When he starts using his tongue to tease the even softer skin around Yifan's nipples, Yifan's body starts to tremble and he releases a low moan at the stimulation.  
   
"Yixing please, no teasing, okay?" He whimpers and lifts his hips to make Yixing realise that he's having a real solid problem down there that needs to be solved.  
   
A chuckle is the answer, then Yixing moves down until he leaves a trail of soft kisses along the waste line of Yifan's jeans. Then he _finally, finally_ pulls them down, right along with Yifan's boxers, which the Omega responds to with a relieved sigh. The relief doesn't last long though as Yixing buries his head in between his legs and starts sucking at his inner thighs, leaving hickeys all over. His dick twitches, already leaking precum even though it hasn't even been touched _once_ , and Yifan needs to bury his face behind his hands because it's just so embarrassing. Yixing doesn't notice though, because he feels himself getting hard just by the scent of Yifan's pheromones and the sound of his muffled whimpers.  
   
If it wasn't for his own rut building up, Yixing thinks that he could probably spend hours between Yifan's thighs and drowning in him, but he needs to be moving on - he'll surely have many more times to do so in the future. Reluctantly, he lifts his head and seats himself between Yifan's spread legs which causes the other to peek up between his long fingers.  
   
"Take your hands off your face," Yixing orders and Yifan obeys at once, his hands flopping down next to his body.  
   
Yixing can't help but to smile when he sees Yifan's flushed cheeks, and his swollen lips from their kissing. Once again, he gets a little lost, but before Yifan can notice, he says:  
   
"My god Yifan, you are so... _beautiful_ , but that doesn't even do you justice. You need to be curated in a museum, I just..."  
   
"S...stop that!" Yifan cries out and claws at the bedding of the mattress in frustration.  
   
Yixing's long fingers start ghosting over the abused skin of Yifan's thighs, then ultimately over the other's dick, throbbing and red, desperate for relief. The slight touch sets Yifan off and he gasps, his guts clenching and his hips jerking into the direction of Yixing's hands. _God, please, please, I need, I want…_  
   
"You'd be much prettier with cum staining your stomach though, I think," Yixing states and with those words, he wraps his hand around Yifan's cock.  
   
"Hnnggh..."  
   
Yifan wants to say something, but it's only some panting and mewling falling from his lips when Yixing goes up and down his shaft, smearing his precum all over it. Yixing tries to keep track of the whole picture - his hand working around Yifan's dick, Yifan jerking under the touch to get even more friction, Yifan's sweaty face and his eyes closed in pleasure. He's a hot and bothered mess, and that's just because of his doing which fills him with pride.  
   
"Cum for me baby."  
   
Yixing speeds up his movements, and it only takes another firm grip around the base for Yifan to jerk through his orgasm. His cum spurts out and stains his stomach and his lips part into a silent moan, followed by a few whimpers that weakly leave his throat. The picture is so lewd yet endearing, Yixing needs to unzip his own pants to give his own hard-on a little more room.  
   
"Fuck," Yifan exclaims and flings his eyes open.  
   
"I was right. You're amazingly pretty like that," Yixing says and dives down to work his tongue into Yifan's mouth who melts into the touch.  
   
Even though he's just came, he feels that this is not enough to make this ineffably dominant want of getting fucked go away. His hands that have been holding on to the sheets up until now start tucking at Yixing's clothes.  
   
"Alpha, please," he starts begging as his hand wanders right down into Yixing's pants, and even though he hesitates for a tiny bit, he still grabs Yixing's dick, feeling a little weirded out by the weight of his size in his hands.  
   
The grunt that leaves Yixing's throat comes from deep down his stomach as he feels Yifan's hands around his cock and he hurries to get rid of his clothes. When Yifan's eyes fall on the throbbing erection between Yixing's legs, he swallows thickly, shocked, but excited, and _so needy_. So needy, he feels his slick oozing out of his entrance and wetting the sheets beneath.  
   
Yixing would love for Yifan to put his dick in his mouth, to be honest. But he does have the feeling that Yifan isn't ready for that, so he says:  
   
"Baby boy, be good and turn around for me."  
   
Yifan complies. Then, he feels Yixing’s hands on him again, gliding over his faint back muscles down to his ass where Yixing presses his fingertips into the soft flesh. Yifan mewls and feels his dick curling up against his stomach again, rubbing on the sheets, which is hardly satisfying to him.  
   
Yixing places a few kisses on Yifan's back, and even though he gets more needy by the second, he enjoys the attention Yixing gives him. His kisses feel hot against his heated skin and send shivers down his spine right into his dick - Yifan wonders how he has gone through his heats without those loving touches by another person.  
   
His little thought process gets interrupted when Yixing decides to go further down his back and bite into one of his butt cheeks. Yifan whines when Yixing's teeth dig into the skin, forcefully enough to leave a slight stinging pain and gentle enough to not break the skin and leave a constant mark.  
   
"Hnngh..." Yifan moans into the pillow he rests his head on and lifts his hips.  
   
"Easy, love."  
   
The answer is a slight displeased grunt, but Yixing makes sure to drown any upcoming protest from his Omega and parts his butt cheeks so he has a full look on Yifan's slick-oozing hole. The sight causes Yixing's own cock to twitch and he dives down to _finally_ get a taste. Yifan jerks when he feels Yixing's tongue licking over his entrance. He didn't really expect Yixing to do _that_ , and he's somewhat ashamed when his hole clenches around Yixing's tongue which has only teased him for a bit before entering him, losing complete control over his body, giving all of him to the man between his legs. On the other hand... it just feels _so good_.  
   
"Fuck! Alpha! Uuuh...!"  
   
Yixing knows it's literally not possible, but he feels like drowning. Drowning in this beautiful Omega of his and all the emotions that wail up inside of him because of that man. An insatiable hunger rattles through his body as he keeps going and Yifan's moans ring in his ears. When he draws his head back, Yifan's head shoots up to give him a begging look.  
   
"Yixing... I...!" He whimpers, and Yixing leans over the other to lock their lips into a kiss.  
   
"Taste yourself, baby," Yixing says in a husky voice, "You taste so fine."  
   
"... please... I need you..."  
   
Yifan is crying. Tears are streaming down his face, and he thinks that if his Alpha won't knot him within the next seconds, he's going to explode. His dick has long curled back up against his stomach, throbbing violently, and his whole body trembles in desire and want. Yixing rolls his hips and rubs his own hard cock against Yifan's butt, which makes the Omega roll his eyes back.  
   
"Knot... now...!"  
   
Yixing hurries to prepare him at least a little - he quickly inserts his index finger into Yifan's warm and tight hole, and is surprised how well Yifan takes even the second finger. He only winces a little when he keeps doing scissoring movements with the two digits.  
   
"You're doing great," Yixing assures, and inserts a third finger - he himself thinks he cannot wait any longer either anymore.  
   
"Uuuh, knot me, _Alpha_ , pl... please... I... can't..."  
   
"You sure?"  
   
Even though all Yixing wants is to finally fuck him, he still doesn't want to hurt him. Yifan nods though, and pushes his hips back, and himself further onto Yixing's fingers.  
   
"Yes!" He breathes, so Yixing pulls his fingers out, only to position the head of his cock on Yifan's entrance.  
   
Yifan doesn't know what he feels - fear, excitement, lust, or most likely, just a combination of everything - and lets out a scream when Yixing pushes inside of him. The stretch feels good though, better than anything he's ever experienced.  
   
"Ugh, Yifan... baby boy..." Yixing grunts as he feels Yifan's walls tightly around his cock, fitting perfectly around him, "... so tight... I'm losing my mind..."  
   
It takes _so much_ of him to not just rut into him. Yifan feels so good. So perfect. None of his previous encounters with other people can even compare to him. If he hadn't been sure before, now would be the moment for Yixing to be though - this is it. Yifan is the one. The only.  
   
"Alpha... knot, knot... I want you...!"  
   
Yixing is fully buried inside of him and presses Yifan down with his whole weight. He sucks and bites on the skin of Yifan's neck, so forceful it hurts, but Yifan just moans when Yixing leaves another visible hickey on his sensitive skin. The Alpha starts moving in short and shallow thrusts, and gets bolder when the moans falling from Yifan's lips indicate that what he's doing feels good. Moving inside of him makes the heat between them a little more bearable, and the room is soon filled with Yifan's moans, Yixing's low grunts, and the sound of sweaty skin slapping against sweaty skin.  
   
"Love, you're so hot," the Alpha roars into Yifan's ear and nibbles on his earlobe.  
   
"Huh... huh... uh..."  
   
Yifan cannot answer anymore. His mind revolves around Yixing and his cock filling him up to the brim. He's tried to move his own hips accordingly to the thrusts, but needs to give up and just lets himself getting fucked into the mattress, biting into the pillow to muffle his pleasured screams.  
   
And then, Yixing feels his knot building up and Yifan throws his head back with the next thrust at the even bigger stretch.  
   
"Alpha!!"  
   
Yifan cums violently and forgets how to breathe for a second - he even thinks that his heart stops beating as his second orgasm rolls over him and Yixing shudders when he shoots his load into the other.  
   
"Can you feel me, baby?" Yixing asks and presses his hips harder against the other, driving his cock a little further up Yifan's ass. "You did that. You alone."  
   
"... xing..." Yifan sobs.  
   
Yixing's words fill Yifan with pride and he feels like his heart is about to burst.  
   
"Are you fine?"  
   
Yifan answers the question with a nod as the blissful feeling of his orgasm slowly vanishes and is glad Yixing throws his hands around him to keep him close.  
   
"Thank you," he breathes and makes Yixing chuckle.  
   
"Baby, no need to thank me for that," the Alpha says and plants a kiss on Yifan's temple. "I'd do anything for you."  
   
Yifan doesn't say anything. He feels drained to the core, like all life has left his body.  
   
"I love you, Alpha," he then manages to mumble.  
   
Yixing rolls to the side and takes Yifan with him. The Omega still feels his knot, and he dreads the moment already when it will have disappeared. It's like this is the moment they share their deepest connection and Yifan doesn't want this to end. If he could, it would only be him and Yixing, hidden from the world in his nest, for the rest of his days.  
   
"I love you too," Yixing whispers into Yifan's ear. "Sleep now, baby. You need it."  
   
"You too. You've won that competition today, after all."  
   
Yixing's low laugh fills the room.  
   
"Believe me, that wasn't the best part about this day. Knotting you was way better."  
   
Yifan wants to throw him a witty comeback, but he feels the sleep winning over his brain and ability to talk, so he mumbles:  
   
"I'm glad. Night."  
   
“Goodnight."  
   
Yixing awakes to the soft light of day that has crept inside the room. His body is still wrapped around Yifan’s own and even though their skin is still sticky, and somewhat disgusting, his grip gets tighter. With a deep breath, he takes all of it in - Yifan’s smell, his warmth, his everything. Slowly, he opens his eyes fully and his gaze falls on Yifan’s bare neck, right on the spot where his claiming mark could be placed. There are a few hickeys scattered across the skin, little love bites and marks that give an indication of who Yifan belongs to, but still... the bruises will heal, and Yifan's skin will be flawless again. Yixing sighs and stares at the skin longingly, allowing himself to get lost in the thought of actually claiming the other. He’s never had thoughts like that before with other people. He’s surely been mated before, and he had liked those people just fine, but none of them had him longing for them as Yifan does. When he looks at the Omega, all he wants is to care and provide for him, protect him, love him down, make him realise how much he means to the Alpha, and just…  
   
“God shit, you got it bad,” Yixing mumbles to himself and puts his head down into the curve of Yifan’s neck in defeat.  
   
Yifan’s body twitches as the movement wakes him from his slumber and Yixing feels the other moving and stretching his limbs slightly. Yifan turns around to face the other, and he manages to show a soft smile, even though he’s still half asleep.  
   
“What?” He asks, one hand rubbing his right eye.  
   
“Nothing,” Yixing mumbles and puts a kiss on Yifan’s forehead, “Morning. How do you feel?”  
   
“Hmm…”  
   
Yifan’s voice rumbles out of his throat in an even deeper tone than usual, the sleep still wearing off on him. He yawns and smacks his lips before he says:  
   
"Disgusting, actually. I need a shower."  
   
Yixing lets out a howling laughter and kisses the other's nose, which is merely an unluckily placed peck on the cheek.  
   
"Are you sure you want to take a shower? I mean... I'd happily get you dirty again, if you want me to."  
   
His hand comes to a rest on Yifan's belly, right below his navel, his thumb drawing small circles across the skin. Yifan blushes and buries his face beneath his hands, but then, he lets out a cry and sits up straight, as if something has hit him out of nowhere.  
   
"What's wrong?" Yixing asks and sits up too, taking Yifan's chin in between his index finger and thumb to make him look at him, "What happened?"  
   
"We didn't...!" Yifan starts as his eyes widen in horror, "... we... didn't use a condom!"  
   
Yixing needs a second.  
   
"Yeah. So?"  
   
“ _So_?!" Yifan scoffs, "Do I need to give you a rundown on sex ed?!"  
   
"Oooh, now I get it," Yixing says, and can't help but to find Yifan's worried expression overly cute.  
   
Yifan doesn't think it's cute. At all. He lets out a grunt, which Yixing takes as a sign that he's getting upset, so he kisses Yifan softly to calm him down.  
   
"Relax, baby boy, I'm sure it's fine. And besides, we'd have such _cute_ pups, like, imagine...!"  
   
"Yixing, that's not funny!" Yifan hisses, "Please take a moment to think about the consequences of an Omega getting knocked up by an Alpha who hasn't even claimed him. In university. With a father who's like the biggest ass around."  
   
"I see," Yixing admits after a moment of thinking, but needs to add, "But, you know that even through all of that, I wouldn't leave you."  
   
What Yixing thinks should be reassuring Yifan in the love he feels for the Omega, is only another source of distress for Yifan. A deep crease appears between his eyebrows and he says:  
   
"Yixing, please, I can't have that right now, okay?! Don't be ridiculous, neither of us is in the position to be able to take care of our _offspring_!”  
   
"Okay, okay, okay, I get it!" Yixing grunts as he realises that he won't come far here.  
   
It peeves him. That his Omega thinks baring his children is a bad thing. That's the first initial thought he's having, but then, thinking about it, Yifan is probably right. So he sighs and says:  
   
"Relax, baby. I'll go get you something. Just wait for me here."  
   
So Yixing crawls out of Yifan's nest who pops out his head to watch his mate get dressed. While Yixing checks the money he has in his purse, he says:  
   
"We're still gonna have pups one day. Mark my words."  
   
When he leaves the room, he hears Yifan squeal which makes him smile all the way from the dorm to the pharmacy on campus.  
   
When steps out of the pharmacy again, he's glad he hasn't run into anyone he knew personally, because, yeah, buying emergency contraceptives for Omegas might spark rumours which Yixing knows will not sit well with Yifan. When he carries the packaging around in a black plastic bag, he decides to also get some water, food, and a pack of condoms. Yifan's heat is far from over, even though he seemed very collected when Yixing's left. There was still that smell of his pheromones in the air though, and Yixing has the hunch that his baby needs to be pampered well before the next wave hits him.  
   
And oh boy, is he right.  
   
He smells Yifan way before he even gets to open the door to his dorm room. When he enters, Yifan cries out:  
   
"Yixing! What took you so long?"  
   
Yixing pulls the curtain aside and finds his Omega spread out on the mattress, his cheeks flushed red, and that very distinctive look of lust and need showing on his face.  
   
"Sorry," Yixing says simply, then gets the contraceptive out of its violet packaging and hands the pill over to Yifan with a bottle of water. "I also brought food."  
   
Yifan downs the pill alongside with half of the bottle of water, because besides getting horny again, he has also realised that he's super dehydrated. Yixing plops down next to him, and Yifan buries his face in his lap after taking a few more sips of the beverage.  
   
"You want to eat something?" Yixing asks and scrapes Yifan's scalp with his fingernails.  
   
Yifan, still naked, shivers under the touch and groans as he feels his dick becoming heavy in between his legs again. His thoughts start circling around his Alpha again, and how he makes him feel when his cock is stretching him to the absolute limits. The thought alone makes him itchy, and he starts breathing heavily as he recalls what happened last night in those sheets.  
   
To answer the other's question, Yifan shakes his head no, then sits up and slips onto Yixing's lap. The clothes he's wearing annoy the Omega, so he grinds his hips against Yixing's thigh, feeling his heat rising again, stirring in his chest at first, and then radiating through his whole body.  
   
"I want you, Alpha," he breathes into Yixing's ear who drops the plastic bags onto the floor hearing that.  
   
"You want me again, baby boy?"  
   
Yifan nods and whimpers when Yixing's hands grab his butt to pull him closer. The fingers digging into his flesh are almost enough to get him wet again and he wiggles his hips. Yixing grunts, as he wants Yifan to be vocal about his needs, so he pinches Yifan's butt cheek, causing him to jump in his lap.  
   
"Tell me, what do you want me to do to you?"  
   
Yixing gently pushes Yifan back onto the bed. The Omega bites his bottom lip as he watches Yixing undressing a second time in barely 24 hours, slowly and teasing - Yifan crumbles at the sight and feels his dick starting to throb. When Yixing is naked, he bends down to the plastic bags and pulls out the pack of condoms. And even though Yifan's mind is filled with nothing but the word "sex", he feels his heart swell that Yixing was thoughtful enough to get them. He actually doesn't deserve him. Nobody deserves this good man.  
   
Those sappy thoughts get interrupted though when Yifan follows Yixing's hands with his gaze and one of them starts pumping at his own dick. When it stands erect again, Yixing caresses Yifan's knees, very lightly, which stands in such stark contrast to his other hand that twists his pulsing cock.  
   
"Want me to fuck you with that cock, huh?"  
   
The dark tone in Yixing's voice sends shivers down Yifan's spine and his legs almost literally fall open.  
   
"Yes," Yifan squeezes out, and thinks he should feel embarrassed how much slick he's oozing again, and he hasn't even barely been touched.  
   
He feels Yixing's hand slide down his inner thighs, occasionally pinching the skin which causes Yifan's dick to twitch even more. Yixing lets go of his own cock, only to grab one of Yifan's hands that's holding onto the sheets.  
   
"Gladly, baby boy," Yixing sulks and guides Yifan's hand down between his legs, "But first... maybe give me a little show? Show me how you got through your heats without me."  
   
Yifan lets out a dry sob, because he's been hoping that Yixing will just put on that condom and fuck him, until he rides both off their wave, and Yifan can form a clear thought again, and now...  
   
"Xing... please..." Yifan whines, but Yixing presses Yifan's hand between his butt cheeks and shows no mercy.  
   
"Let me see, baby. I'll reward you."  
   
Yifan throws his head back into the pillows, then he decides to obey. Yixing darts back and watches as his Omega spreads his legs a little more and then proceeds to insert the first finger into his entrance. He watches closely and begins to salivate as he sees how Yifan's muscle ring clenches around the digits, and widens as Yifan starts scissoring himself open with a second one, only to slip in the third quickly afterwards. Yixing's heavy breathing accompanies Yifan's low moans and Yixing's hand start to search for the condom pack blindly, because he just can't avert his gaze from Yifan fingering himself.  
   
Yifan loses the shame he feels in the beginning and peeks up to Yixing through half lidded eyes. Yixing seems to enjoy himself a lot while he strokes his dick in accordance with Yifan's moves - when he buries his fingers deeper inside of himself, Yixing's hand goes down his red throbbing cock, while the other hand tries to fumble a condom out of it's packaging. His mind is blurred and clouded, but he sees that as the sign that Yixing is soon not going to be able to hold himself back anymore. With the next thrust of his fingers, Yifan moans louder, his lips parting widely and he cries out:  
   
"Knot! Knot! Alpha... please...!"  
   
Yixing's hands are shaky, but he manages to put the condom on rather quickly, then he lets out a growl as Yifan pulls out his fingers and cries in pleasure when he feels Yixing's dick stretching him even further.  
   
Yixing's thrusts are slow, but deep. So deep, Yifan forgets how to breathe and he gets dizzy in the head. So deep, all he can do is moan and whine, and he doesn't even realise that he's got tears streaming down his face as Yixing ruts into him. Yixing is everywhere, once again. He's the only clear thought he can form and his hands just cannot decide where to get to a rest, so they keep wandering about, squeezing Yixing's shoulders, fingernails scratching over his chest, until they get intertwined in his neck and Yifan pulls him down where their lips crash together. Yixing keeps going, steadily, hard, deep, and Yifan's voice just keeps cracking with every thrust - his long moans turn into whimpers and mewls, and Yixing loves it. It turns him on so much, he feels his knot building up, so he gives Yifan one more kiss before he retreats again to support his weight on his hands placed next to the other's head and increases the speed of his thrusts. Yifan's eyes roll back and he holds onto Yixing's wrists.  
   
"Closecloseclose!" Yifan chants, "Knot me!"  
   
One more thrust, and Yixing gives him what he needs, and both of them let out a long moan as they both get off simultaneously.  
   
"Fuck! Baby!" Yixing cries out as he keeps jerking through his orgasm.  
   
If this is how it's going to be like with Yifan, he doesn't think his want for the Omega can ever be satiated. Ever.  
   
Yifan feels like only now he's actually breathing again and feels air filling his lungs after the last orgasmic wave has worn off. He pulls Yixing close again, feeling him inside of him and demands a long and slow kiss.

"You really need to eat now, though," Yixing suddenly says after a while and feels his own stomach growl, and realises that he hasn't eaten in almost a day.  
   
The Omega nods slowly and allows Yixing to fetch the bags containing sandwiches and snacks that he's dropped onto the floor before. It's only when Yixing hands him a simple BLT and he takes a first bite he realises that he's been starving.  
   
When he's barely finished his quick lunch, somebody knocks at the door and yells:  
   
"Can I come in without walking in on you two guys fucking?"  
   
Yixing rolls his eyes when they recognise Tao's voice, and Yifan giggles.  
   
"Come in!" Yifan hollers and they hear the door swinging open.  
   
"Jesus fuck, how do you guys even breathe?! There's like _zero oxygen_ in this room!"  
   
Yifan's roommate walks over to the window and flings it open. Yifan pops his head out of his nest and says:  
   
"Sorry."  
   
Tao looks at him, and only raises an eyebrow in response. He doesn't need to comment on that, so he proceeds to say:  
   
"I'm just going to change clothes and grab my stuff to go finish my paper at the library. I'll be gone in no time."  
   
"It's okay, I mean, you live here too," Yifan starts but Tao interrupts:  
   
"Believe me, I don't even _want_ to be here longer than necessary!"  
   
Yifan snorts and Tao walks over to his closet to throw on a new set of clothes. It's almost ridiculous how good the Beta looks, even when he wears a pair of ripped jeans and an old grey hoodie, his blond hair undone and messy, and a big pair of sunglasses on his nose. Ever so often, Yifan catches himself being a little envious of Tao's good looks.  
   
"So, I'll get going again," his roommate announces and throws his bag with his laptop and books over his right shoulder, "Yixing, take care of my bro here."  
   
"I will," Yixing grunts from behind the curtain, because he finds it awkward that he's naked while Tao is in the room.  
   
With a last nod to Yifan, he disappears again and Yifan pulls the curtain aside. The fresh air coming into the room feels like it's cleansing their lungs.  
   
"Tao was right, the air is really bad," Yifan says as he huddles into Yixing's arms, because, after all, it's still cold outside and Yifan tends to freeze rather quickly.  
   
Yixing pulls him close and rubs his back. After placing a kiss on the crown of Yifan's head, he says:  
   
"You're good now, baby?"  
   
Yifan doesn't answer for a beat, then he looks up and shows a soft smile.  
   
"Yeah. I think so. Thank you."  
   
"Is there anything else I can do for you?"  
   
Yifan puts his head on Yixing's shoulder and snuggles a little more into him. Yixing grabs the next best blanket and throws it over him, sensing that Yifan's soon going to shiver in the air that slowly cools down around them.  
   
"Just hold me a little more."  
   
"Always, love."


	4. PT IV

***

“This is the worst.”  
   
Yixing looks up from some lecture notes and blinks confused when Yifan sits down next to him at the coffee shop table the Alpha’s occupied.  
   
“What’s the worst?” Yixing then asks and tosses his highlighting pen on the pile of sheets filled with scribbles and notes that he cannot make sense of - why did he think that international business management and marketing was a good major to take? Was he high when he enrolled in that field?  
   
“My mother gave me a call,” Yifan answers and supports his head with his arms that rest on the table. “My parents want to come over before the start of winter vacation. And they… want to meet you.”  
   
“Oh! You told them about us?”  
   
He didn't want to pressure Yifan in any kind of way, so he never dropped the topic about his parents. He figured that swallowing his pride and let Yifan decide for himself when to tell them would work better than asking him about it all the time. So now hearing that Yifan has finally told them, he can't hide the wide smile beaming at the other.  
   
“It kind of slipped when I was talking to my mother on the phone the other day. And then she called me back and said they’d be picking me up from campus for the winter vacation and that, by any chance, they’d love to meet you.”  
   
“That’s cute!” Yixing coos and ruffles Yifan’s hair.  
   
"It's _not_!” Yifan whines. "It's horrible!"  
   
"I'll be showing my best side, baby boy!" Yixing purrs and his hand comes to a rest on Yifan's head, fingers tangling up in his soft hair.  
   
"I'm not worrying about you. I'm worrying about my father's attitude..."  
   
"But... am I not a terrific catch? I could brag about my medals and stuff, he'd surely like that!"  
   
Yifan sits up straight again and Yixing's hand flops down to the other's shoulder. The Omega tilts his head to rub his jawline against it, and Yixing scoots closer.  
   
"You're the most terrific match I could ever ask for," Yifan admits and blushes a little, which makes Yixing tremble. "So that's why my father will surely will find something to nag about, because he cannot believe it that you are mated to me."  
   
"Hurt Alpha pride is so disgusting," Yixing wrinkles his nose and kisses Yifan's forehead. "You go tell him I said hi and that would never want another."  
   
"Look at you, being all cute and shit!"  
   
"Excuse me, but when am I not cute with you?"  
   
Yifan snorts, and has to admit that Yixing is right. He truly _is_ sweet and caring when it comes to Yifan, to the point that it sometimes gets a tad too much and Yixing's sweet talk becomes overly cheesy. Yifan does not complain though, because deep down, he likes the way he's being treated.  
   
"Yifan, baby, don't worry. Bring them over. I'd love to meet them."  
   
Something about the certain tone in his voice makes Yifan relax. Yixing's smile is reassuring enough for him, and takes the anxious doubts clinging to him away.  
   
"Fine. I will."  
 

***

   
After the last class before the winter break has ended, Yifan's parents arrive at the campus in their SUV and pick their son up from his dorm room. Yixing and him have decided to meet at the coffee shop, because that's basically where everything has started and holds a special memory for them. They also think that choosing a public space is the safest option for a first meeting, because should Yifan's father have one of his antics again, he might not go too feral, only to avoid losing face.  
   
So now, Yifan is eyeing his parents nervously who look horribly lost at the table they chose to sit at, each of them having big plain white mugs filled with coffee in front of them. His mother in her Chanel costume, and his father in his Armani suit just won’t fit into the slightly shabby roast house where all sorts of students roam around. Suddenly, the Omega thinks that this might have been a very bad idea.

“Sorry about the location,” he says, clinging on to his mug, “But… it’s where I met him and… it’s my favourite place on campus.”

His father doesn’t say anything and prefers to lift one eyebrow, which are in the same shape as Yifan’s, while his mother parts her red painted lips into a warm smile.

“It’s okay, dear! It suits you, this place. I can see why you like it so much.”

Yifan returns the smile which dies the second he looks at his father who seems to be unnerved. He steals glances at his watch, raising an eyebrow every time another minute has passed and Yixing still hasn’t shown up. He’s an impatient man. He hates waiting. He especially hates waiting for something that concerns his son.

Right when Yifan wants to launch any sort of explanation, Yixing appears in the doorway. Their gazes cross and Yifan shoots up from his seat.

“I’ll… I’ll go greet him, hold on!”

Yifan feels his parents’ gazes in his back as he walks over to Yixing who’s gotten in line for a coffee.

“You’re nervous, baby boy,” Yixing greets as Yifan only dares to give him a quick peck on the cheek, “I smell that.”

“Ugh, I know, I want to drop dead,” Yifan whines as Yixing places his order - a simple Americano. “My father is having one of his bad days again.”

“It’s going to be fine, Yifan, I’ll show my best side to impress Papa Wu.”

“Yeah, you probably need a miracle to impress him,” Yifan mutters under his breath which elicits a chuckle from Yixing.

“Don’t worry,” he reassures, then the barista hands him his drink over the counter. 

Yixing is nervous himself, but he’d rather not show that, especially when meeting the Alpha father of his boyfriend. They make their way to the table and he keeps his head held high, hoping it might not come off as too cocky.

“Okay, so… that’s Yixing…” Yifan stutters as they reach their table and his parents get up to shake hands with him.

“Nice to meet you,” Yixing greets with a bright smile and takes the hand of Yifan’s mother first.

She seems delighted and pats the back of Yixing’s hand with the comment:

“The pleasure’s all ours! I was wondering when I’d meet the guy Yifan talks so much about…”

“Oh thank you mother, that’s not embarrassing at all or something…” Yifan grunts.

After he accidentally told her about Yixing, it was actually her that kept asking him out about his mate. Plus, he’s comfortable with his mother - when the first awkward phase was over, Yifan gladly told her about Yixing, even without her having to ask.

“It isn’t,” Yixing throws in and pats Yifan’s head, “I probably annoy my father with stories about you, too.”

Yifan’s mother laughs, then he moves on to shake hands with Yifan’s father, who only nods and grabs his hand in a very tight grip - Yixing feels peeved, but decides to let it slide and not try to be stubborn about it. He lets him have the authority over him, even though his Alpha hormones kick in and tell him to show some authority himself. 

_Don’t do this the first time you meet him_ , he reminds himself and they sit down to have a first talk.

It’s Yifan’s mother who kicks off the conversation, seemingly interested in how Yixing met Yifan, and how they got together. Yixing is willing to give the basic information, but won’t go into too much detail because he knows Yifan would die of embarrassment. He gives his best to tell her just how much he likes the Omega, and she seemingly enjoys the affection he’s giving to her son. Yifan’s father stays silent. 

It’s not too unusual for him to let his wife take over social situations. Jingyi’s a Beta and has a knack for mediating, talking to people, and make them feel comfortable, while her husband just comes off as intimidating to most. It is unusual though that he doesn’t try to engage in the conversation at all. He just keeps staring at Yixing, who tries to ignore being watched and concentrates on Yifan’s mother while he allows himself to put one hand on Yifan’s thigh. It’s supposed to show Yifan that he’s got everything under control, and signal to his parents that he’s trying to take good care of him. He hopes it won’t get misinterpreted by the other Alpha in an overly possessive way.

“So, when are you going to graduate?” Yifan’s mother asks somewhere down the conversation, and Yifan has the feeling that, apart from his father, the whole meeting isn’t going too bad.

“Oh, maybe next year, it all depends on the exam results… but I think I didn’t do too bad on them.”

“And do you have any plans after graduation?”

“I will probably start working at my father’s company,” Yixing answers with a mild smile and with that sentence, Yifan’s father shoots up into an even straighter seating position.

“What company?” He asks, his eyes darkening.

Yixing is startled at first, as the tone in the other man’s voice is demanding and pressing, which he doesn’t understand at all.

“Zhang Investment Partners.”

Once Yixing has given the brief answer, Yifan’s father cocks his head and squints his eyes. Then he leans forward and says:

“So… your father… is Zhang Weimin?”

The mentioning of the name makes Yifan’s mother press her lips together. Yifan frowns, and looks back and forth between his parents. 

“Umm… yes, that’s my father. Do you know him, Mr. Wu? I wasn’t aware you and him know each other.”

It’s not meant to be a provocation of any sort - Yixing is just as confused about the other male’s behaviour as Yifan is.

“I think this conversation is over,” Yifan’s father says after examining Yixing one more time and gets up.

He doesn’t even bother to finish his coffee, and his wife gets up along with him, grabbing her son’s arm.

“Come with us, Yifan,” she says, in a voice that doesn’t tolerate any backtalk and Yifan looks to Yixing who, in return, is so startled at the sudden shift the conversation took, he doesn’t even know how to react for a second.

“Umm… but… what…?” Yifan says as he gets dragged up on his feet.

In this moment, Yixing gets back to his senses. Instinctively, he reaches out to Yifan to hold onto his wrist, thus trying to keep him at his side.

“I don’t understand, what’s going on here?” He demands to know and turns to the other Alpha, “What’s wrong? With me being Zhang Weimin’s son?”

Yifan’s father leans over him, his pitch black eyes pinned on him. Yifan knows that look. It only ever appears when he’s truly pissed, and better be avoided. Yixing tries to remain unimpressed, his jaw tightened as he tries to control the anger wailing up in his chest.

“I won’t let my son near any of _your kind_. Your family is trouble, and mine will stay away from yours!”

With that, he takes off and Yifan’s mother pushes her son out of the shop. Yixing follows them, anger making his blood boil.

“I don’t get it, you can’t just take my mate away!” He calls after them.

Yifan’s father lets out a roar of the sort that makes everyone’s blood freeze, then he grabs his son’s shoulder and pulls him into the direction of the car. Yifan stumbles after him, stammering:

“Father… what… please…!”

“You shut up and get in there!”

“No, you can’t…!” Yifan starts, but his father pushes him against the door to the backseat.

With dark eyes and a tight jawline, he hisses:

“Get. In. Or I’ll make you.”

The answer is a whimper while that old well known fear of his own father rattles through Yifan’s body. When Yixing sees how Yifan’s being manhandled by the other Alpha, he tries to dash forward, but Yifan’s mother holds him back.

“Don’t,” she says, calmly, but resolutely. “Don’t try to put up a fight with him.”

“He’s _hurting him_!” Yixing roars.

“Let Weimin cool down, you don’t want to do this right now, believe me,” Jingyi ignores Yixing’s remark and puts her hand on his shoulder.

“I… but… he can’t just…!”

Yixing is angry, and his jaw tightens as he tries to not lash out on Yifan’s mother who tilts her head and shoots him an apologetic look.

“Jingyi, if you won’t stop talking to him, I’m going to rip his throat out!” Wu Wei barks over as he opens the door to the driver’s seat of his car.

Yixing can hear Yifan yell a “Stop talking like that!” from the backseat and the distressed tone shining along in his voice breaks his heart.

“I’m sorry,” the woman says in the end, before she hurries over to the car to get in as her husband has just told her. 

Yixing dashes after the car for a few feet as Wu Wei drives off with screeching tires, and he lets out an outraged cry, which sounds so threatening, he gets startled by himself for a moment. When the SUV has disappeared, Yixing’s heart beats heavily and pumps his anger through every inch of his body - if possible, he would love to just take a swing at Wu Wei, even though he’s much older, and the father of his mate, but maybe _because_ of the latter, he feels like he needs to take action.

How _dare he_ taking Yifan away from him?!

Still huffing and puffing his chest, Yixing fumbles his phone out of the pocket of his denim jacket and dials his father’s number, but he doesn’t answer him.

“Fuck!”

Stuffing his phone back, he decides to go to his father’s office and pay him a visit. Whatever it is that he pissed Wu Wei off with, he surely would know about it. Time for Weimin to redeem himself.

***

While Yixing decides to confront his father, Yifan feels like the air in the car has vanished and he’s unable to breathe. His mind has gone blank for a moment and only when he slowly realises what actually happened, he pulls out his phone to write Yixing a message.

“Give me your phone.”

Wu Wei takes a halt at a red light and turns around, his big hand extended to the backseat. Yifan’s grip around the device gets tighter and he clutches it to his chest.

“I’m not a child anymore, you can’t take away my phone!”

He’s surprised how sure of himself he sounded - even Wu Wei furrows his eyebrows in disbelief, but instead of leaving him alone, the expression on his face gets a tad more threatening.

“Give. Me. Your. Goddamn. Phone.”

The years Wu Wei has spent crushing Yifan’s ego and controlling his mind with punishments and threats in his childhood pay off. Yifan’s face is wet with tears as he crumbles out of fear what he might do to him if he won’t obey and hands the phone over, which gets tossed into Jingyi’s lap. The woman puts it into her handbag, avoiding to look at either of the two.

“I’m going to pull you out of that school. No way in hell you’ll go back there, or see that bastard ever again.”

With a last stern look over the rear mirror, he deems the conversation as over. Yifan’s mouth drops open, and he forgets to breathe for a second. Then, he just snaps and kicks into the back of the driver’s seat.

“Are you out of your goddamn mind?!” Wu Wei roars as he feels the kick and turns around again.

Luckily, the traffic light is still red.

“Are you having fun ruining me?!” Yifan barks. “What did I ever do to you for you to treat me like this?!”

“You better watch your mouth, I’m protecting you from that filthy bloodline!”

“Fuck you!”

“It’s green!” Jingyi reminds her husband as the insult has rolled of Yifan’s tongue.

The car honking behind him is probably the only reason why Wu Wei doesn’t jump at Yifan’s throat at once. Instead, he hits the gas and speeds off, staying silent for the rest of the ride. Yifan keeps shedding silent tears until they park in front of their mansion, and dashes out of the car before Wu Wei can even put it into a proper parking position. Jingyi rushes after him, the keys to the door jingling in her hands.

“I’m not done with you, Wu Yifan!” His father roars after him and catches up to them while Yifan keeps ringing the doorbell and hopes that their maid will open before his father can reach him.

“Wu Wei, just _stop_!” 

His mother puts her delicate body in front of her son and looks at her husband over her shoulder, while she puts her hand on Yifan’s back.

“You’ve done enough already. Let him be.”

In that moment, the maid answers the door and Yifan rushes in. He ignores the maid’s remark that she’s happy to see him again, doesn’t even bother to take off his shoes and coat, and walks straight into the room that has served as his nest over all those years. 

The air is stale since nobody really bothered to open the windows and let some fresh air in. Yifan feels like he’s getting crushed by its thickness, by the whole house that he was so happy to escape from when he left for college. Now, it seems like he’s back to what it was before, trapped in a nightmare that he had hoped to finally have woken up from, and he flops down onto the floor. His face is buried in the next best pillow he can grab, but can’t bring himself to scream his frustration into it. Surprisingly, he’s stopped crying, and overhears his parents conversation in the hallway:

“That really wasn’t necessary, Wu Wei. Yixing seems to be a nice guy. Just because you’re mad at Weimin doesn’t mean Yixing is just like him and he’d treat Yifan badly!”

“If you knew what Weimin _did_ , you wouldn’t talk like that, Jingyi!”

“Oh, but I do know!”

Her statement follows a long pregnant silence and she speaks up again:

“I know everything. And to be honest? Maybe you should sort the issue out with Weimin, rather than abusing our son for something which isn’t his fault to begin with.”

Her steps disappear in the hallway, and Yifan feels tears gathering in his eyes again.

***

“Ba!”

Yixing’s had enough. All his tries to reach out to Yifan and get a hold of him have failed. He’s not answering his calls, and won’t even read the messages he’s sent him. So when he storms the office of his father, he doesn’t even care that he’s on the phone with someone.

“Yixing, can you wait outside please?” He asks, covering the phone with his hand.

“No! We need to talk!”

Zhang Weimin sighs, then goes back to the caller.

“Mr. Sun, I’ll call you back, something came up… Yes… Yes, I will definitely call you back… Thank you… Goodbye!”

When he puts the phone down, he raises an eyebrow.

“So?”

“Ba, you need to talk to that Wu guy.”

Weimin frowns, then says:

“You mean Wu Wei?”

“Yes.”

His father seems to be lost for a second, but then he seems to understand where Yixing is going. As the realisation flashes across his face, he double checks:

“Don’t tell me that that mate of yours you talked about is his _son_?”

“He is!” Yixing roars and his fist flies down onto his father’s desk, “And I can’t reach him! He’s keeping him away from me! All because of some shit that happened with you! Like… what did you do for him to be so pissed?! When did you even cross paths?! What is _going on_ , for fuck’s sake?!”

A long sigh is the answer, then the other male rubs his eyes in frustration.

“That was… way back… twenty years ago or something… I can’t believe he’s still so _petty_ about this…”

“What the hell happened father? You must’ve pulled something, otherwise he wouldn’t try to come between us!”

Weimin doesn’t say anything for a few moments and keeps nibbling at the dry skin of his lips. Yixing’s got them from him. The same plump seductive lips that make people want more once they’ve gotten a taste of them. He huffs once again, then he says:

“It’s complicated.”

“Yeah, obviously!” Yixing scoffs and leans over the desk, “And today is the day you’re going to work that out! I will _not_ suffer for the things _you_ did! Yifan will not suffer because of his father! That’s not fair!”

His son is right, in a way. Weimin has tried hard to be a good father to him, especially after his wife had died and Yixing was left without the woman who’s taken the greatest care of him, while he was busy getting his business going. Maybe he hasn’t been the best father figure to him, putting him second to his work most of the time. Maybe today is the day he needs to redeem himself for that, so he gives in, heaves a sigh, and gets up to fetch his suit jacket.

“Well then, follow me.”

While they walk out, he tells his secretary that he won’t be available for the rest of the day, without any further explanation. He leaves her behind, startled, then guides his son into the underground parking of the company building.

“Aiya, out of all the people on campus, you choose Wu Wei’s son as a mate,” he nags as they get into his car.

“You know exactly that you don’t just choose your mate, at least not the one you’re serious about,” Yixing retorts as he fastens his seatbelt.

His father turns to look at him, and seems to get lost in thoughts. When he pulls himself back together, he starts the engine and mumbles:

“Well, you’re right about that, unfortunately.”

Yixing frowns but senses his father won’t give him any explanation, so he stays silent for the whole ride. Their destination turns out to be a big house in the suburbs of the city, looking like it’s been in the hands of the same family for generations, with selective renovations to give an old facade a new and modern touch. Only when Weimin turns off the engine, Yixing realises that his father hasn’t even used the GPS system of the car to get here, like he knows the route.

“How do you know they live here?”

“Well, I guess they haven’t moved in the past ten years…” his father answers vaguely and gets out.

Yixing follows him to the big entrance door, wondering how in the world his father knows where Yifan’s family’s house is located - heck, he didn’t even know. And he’s mated with Yifan.

Yixing watches his father ringing the doorbell after a few moments of hesitation. When a silhouette appears behind the milky glass, he says:

“Yixing, you shut up. I’ll do the talking.”

A young girl opens, wearing black suit pants and a white blouse. Yixing cannot detect any particular smell, so he reckons she’s a Beta that’s been hired for housework. They’re not uncommon, as they’ve got two maids at home themselves.

“How can I help you?” She asks, batting her eyelashes.

“Is Wu Wei at home?” Weimin asks.

“Umm… yes. He’s in the dining room… I wasn’t aware that he’s expecting someone?”

“Oh no, he’s not, this is more of a surprise visit,” Yixing’s father says and pushes her aside, gently though, to not come off as rude and strides past her.

Yixing follows on his heels, getting hit with the prominent scent of his Omega - he must be here, and his first instinct is to scavenge the mansion for him, but his father would probably kill him if he started to wander about. With an uneasy feeling in his stomach, he stumbles after the other male, who somehow happens to know exactly where the dining room is. It’s fishy. How is he so familiar with the layout of the house?

When he walks through the door into the room, Wu Wei is just about to have a very late lunch. He’s alone at a table set up for two, and when he looks up, his whole body freezes. His eyes widen, and Yixing smells the distress wailing up in him.

“You…!” He exclaims as he sees Weimin. “Who let you in?!”

“Relax, I kind of invited myself,” Weimin answers. “Don’t take that out on your maid.”

Wu Wei’s chopstick clatter onto his plate and he gets up on his feet.

“Get out!” He barks. “You’re not welcome here!”

“I will after we talked. Because we really need to do that.”

Weimin just goes on to plop down onto one of the dining chairs, and Wu Wei can only watch helplessly, too startled by the other’s actions.

“Where is Yifan?” Yixing asks, every fibre of his body vibrating in desire to be finding his Omega.

“Didn’t I tell you to shut your mouth?”

“Nesting,” Wu Wei grinds between his teeth.

Right in the moment when Yixing wants to dash away to the staircase to look for him, Yixing smells him before he even sees him, and seconds later he’s got blond hair in his sight and Yifan’s body wrapped around his.

“Yixing… xing…!” Yifan sobs into Yixing’s shoulder, clinging onto him desperately.

Feeling and smelling him again after those very distressing last hours makes Yixing’s mind go blank for a second, before he turns around and starts rubbing their necks together to scent him. When his own scent wears off Yifan again, and his Omega relaxes seemingly, he proceeds to shower his face with small kisses.

“Sorry it took me so long,” Yixing says and Yifan buries his hands in his sweater, his knuckles turning white while doing so.

Yifan only shakes his head, telling him that it’s okay. In fact, he should tell him that he didn’t take long at all - between the meeting in the coffee shop and now, only half a day has passed, even though that has felt like an eternity.

Weimin and Wu Wei look at them, and Wu Wei’s throat escapes a low and menacing groan. Weimin, on the other hand, cocks his head back to the other male and says:

“I cannot believe you’re taking this out on the back of our kids.”

“Me?! Taking this out on the backs of my kid?!” Wu Wei barks. “I’m trying to protect him from your spineless bloodline, Zhang Weimin!”

“Did you just call us spineless?!” Yixing snaps and breaks apart from Yifan’s embrace.

Yifan still clings onto his arm though, maybe to hold him back, but Weimin lifts his hand to indicate his son to stay where he is.

“Wu Wei, my son isn’t me. Just leave him out of your own personal pettiness, and talk this out with me instead. Like normal people do.”

Weimin has always been an Alpha on the calmer side of the spectrum. He’s got some major Beta tendencies, which has proven useful in his business. Wu Wei is the complete opposite, short-tempered and loud, that can turn into a serious threat once his limits have been reached. Yifan knows that all too well.

“What on earth happened between you two?” Yixing asks and intertwines his fingers with Yifan’s.

“We were business partners once,” Weimin answers. “I think you were about a year old. Wu Wei was about to get bonded with Yifan’s mother, and both of our businesses were at the beginning. I was supposed to invest into one of Wu Wei’s projects. And pulled out.”

Yixing frowns and looks to Yifan who just shrugs his shoulders. He’s never heard of that story either.

“You pulled out _last minute_ ,” Wu Wei defends himself. “I counted on you, and you left me hanging, making _me_ lose my credibility!”

“How is this a reason to be still angry after twenty years? Your business did well nonetheless,” Yifan throws in, his voice cracking, because he never knows if any back talk will be tolerated by his father.

“It’s not just the money,” Weimin answers and looks up to the ceiling.

“Shut up!” Wu Wei barks and slams his hand on the table, leaning over Weimin in threatening demeanour. “You say _one more word_ about this, and I’ll…”

“What? Rip my throat out? Go feral on me?”

“Don’t think I wouldn’t do it!”

“Oh god, Wu Wei, stop _acting_ like that,” Weimin says and rolls his eyes, “You really have no right to be making a scene, after all, it was _you_ who closed the door on me when my wife died and I came to you for help.”

“You fucking…!”

Wu Wei’s neck starts turning red from the anger bottled up inside of him, then he hisses:

“ _You_ were the one walking out! _You_ were the one leaving me hanging, and you expect me to welcome you with _open arms_?!”

“Do you understand what’s going on?” Yifan whispers into Yixing’s ear but Yixing can only shake his head no.

He hasn’t got a clue what is going on. Meanwhile, their fathers keep yelling at each other, the volume swelling with every word they say.

“I told you I had no other choice, for god’s sake!” Weimin cries out, slowly losing his temper too.

“You had the choice! You had it all along and you made clear what you preferred!”

“I have already told you…!”

“Spare me with your excuses! I don’t want to hear any of them! I want you to _leave_ , once and for all!”

“Then why didn’t you just go ahead and be the bigger man? You also had the choice, and you turned away too, so don’t act like the only victim here!”

Wu Wei has started pacing across the dining floor, occasionally kicking against the furniture. Yifan shields himself behind his mates’ body, even though Yixing is by far smaller than him.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” the Omega murmurs, and Yixing’s grip around his hand gets tighter.

Yifan’s father lets out a sarcastic laughter, almost edging on a frustrated howl, then he slumps down onto one of the chairs. He ruffles his hair, which has the same colour as Yifan’s, but shows first silver linings in between.

“Yes, of course! Wu Wei is supposed to be _the bigger_ man, the _forgiving_ one! The one not minding that he’s been toyed with, and left behind by the one who was supposed to be with him, sure! Great! _Fuck you_ , Weimin!”

The words stay in the room, unable to be taken back, and when the two sons understand what Wu Wei means, both gasping unison.

“Wait… hold on… are you…?” Yixing stammers.

Wu Wei tries to launch an explanation, but at his attempt to string the words into a coherent sentence, Yifan’s mother steps into the room from the backyard. She’s exchanged her Chanel costume for a pair of simple jeans and a sweatshirt with pushed up sleeves, wearing dirt stained gloves, showing that she’s been working in the garden to prepare the flowerbeds for the upcoming spring.

“They are,” she simply says, taking them off and walking over to the sink in the joint kitchen, “They’re mates.”

Her statement follows a long pregnant silence, in which the two Alphas don’t dare to look up, faces red from embarrassment, while Yixing and Yifan stare at her as if she’s lost her mind. Jingyi lifts her eyebrows in a very judgemental way, then she says:

“Wu Wei, can we finally stop pretending like we’re actually meant for each other?”

She washes the dirt off her arms, scrubbing it off in forceful movements. She doesn’t seem to be hurt, or angry. She’s just… there, in the kitchen, cleaning herself up, as if she had known all along that this day would come. As if she has taken her time to prepare herself for this.

Suddenly, Yifan understand what his parents had talked about earlier that day. He feels like somebody has run him over with a car.

“Wu Wei met Weimin right before we were bonded. But instead of running away with Wu Wei, Weimin decided to stay with his wife and you, Yixing. He chose his family over his significant other.”

“I… I don’t get it,” Yixing says, but Jingyi ignores his remark.

“Yifan, why do you think you’ve been presented as an Omega?”

“Umm… I don’t know… I guess it just happened…?” Her son answers truthfully, feeling somewhat dizzy.

“Nothing ‘just happens’ in this family full of pride-ridden Alphas,” Jingyi sneers, “You didn’t ‘just happen’ to become an Omega. You being presented as one is because the bond between me and your father wasn’t the real deal. We weren’t supposed to be mates to begin with, yet we bonded because it surely felt like that back then. Wu Wei was my world. And then you became my world, Yifan.”

She dries her hands with a towel, then rubs over her neck, right where Wu Wei has placed his bonding mark all those years back.

“I can hardly feel it anymore,” she says matter-of-factly, “It’s almost disappeared completely. Give it another year and our bond will be nothing more but a very faint scar on my skin.”

“… I’m shocked.” Is everything Yifan can bring himself to say and looks back to his father. “You… you’re basically the reason why I didn’t fit into your male-Alpha norm and you punished me for that.”

“I’m sorry,” his father mumbles, his face buried in his hands.

“Sorry?! That’s all you have to say?” Yixing rumbles and puffs his chest, “You’ve got the most deserving man as a son, and you’ve treated him like shit, and all you can say is ‘sorry’?”

“Yixing,” Weimin exhorts.

“You’re not any better!” Yixing hisses. “Did mother know? Was that what broke her? Are you the reason she died?!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, your mother died of cancer, and I loved her dearly! If I hadn’t respected and loved her the way I did, I would’ve left her. But I didn’t, and I cared and provided for her and you!”

“This is absolutely crazy!” Yixing barks. “How can you two be… that’s just…!”

“Actually,” Jingyi raises her voice again, “When your mother died, Yixing, Weimin came to Yifan’s father to talk to him, but by that time, Yifan was in elementary school already and he rejected him to avoid a scandal.”

“How… do you know all of this?” Yifan asks, while Yixing keeps processing the information with a deep crease on his forehead.

“I put one and one together, I guess… there were hints and signs during the time Weimin and Wu Wei were doing business with each other. Wu Wei was a little too devastated after Weimin pulled out of the project, given the fact that he soon found another sponsor and everything was fine again… I kind of ran into them when Wu Wei came here after his wife’s funeral… but I never really made the connection until today when Wu Wei threw his hissy fit at the coffee shop.”

While Yifan is kind of impressed by his mother, Yixing snaps at his father as he recalls the day of the funeral and how Weimin had disappeared for a while afterwards, leaving his son with his grandparents for the rest of the day:

“Wait a minute… so… mother wasn’t even buried for like an hour and you looked for _him_?! Like?! Did you wait for her to die so you could run to him without feeling bad for it?”

“Yixing, I was a mess at that time. And I needed help. Any kind of advice. Or at least someone to unload my troubles to. Wu Wei was the only one that came to my mind.” He shoots Wu Wei a look whose face turns soft for the smallest part of a second, before he gets a hold of him again.

Everything Yixing can bring himself to is to shake his head in disbelief. This must be a joke of the worst sorts. Nobody dares to speak a word, until the silence gets so awkward, Weimin gets up from his chair.

“I’ll leave you alone, Wu Wei.”

Yifan’s father looks up with a confused look on his face. Weimin puts his hands into the pockets of his coat and explains himself:

“You told me to leave. And I will, under the condition that you leave our kids out of this. I know that Yixing loves Yifan very much. I’m pretty sure the feeling is mutual. Don’t get into the way of your son’s happiness, just because we screwed up ours, that’s an awful thing to do. You’re not that kind of man.”

Wu Wei stays silent and keeps avoiding Weimin’s gaze. When he won’t give an answer, Weimin looks to Yixing and Yifan and says:

“Well, boys. I’ll see you around. I’ll be leaving first.”

With that, he leaves the dining room for the hallway. When the remaining four people hear the maid sending him off with the advice to drive carefully, Jingyi speaks up:

“Are you serious, Wu Wei?! You’re letting him go?”

She looks at him as if he’s lost his mind, then she scoffs.

“You really can’t be helped.”

Wu Wei’s throat escapes a grunt, the sort coming from a place of distress, and his fist sails down onto the dining table. The tableware is still clattering when he dashes out of the room to catch up on Weimin.

“I cannot believe what just happened,” Yixing then announces and Yifan makes an affirmative noise.

“How are you so… calm, mother?” Yifan then asks Jingyi.

“I’ve had time to make peace with it,” she answers and leans against the kitchen counter. With her arms crossed in front of her chest, she adds, “Plus, I know Wu Wei hasn’t been happy recently. I want him to be though. He needs to find some peace of mind.”

Yixing and Yifan look at each other and are at loss for words. They imagined a lot of things that could’ve possibly happened between their fathers, but all of their assumptions have turned out to be wrong. The Alpha almost wishes that one of his assumptions had been right though.

“Look boys, I’m glad it’s out in the open. That was such a big elephant in the room for the last years, it was nerve wrecking.” Jingyi opens one of the drawers in the kitchen and pulls out Yifan’s phone which she hands over to her son. “Just… take it as it is. Whatever’s going to happen from now. Anything is better than both of your fathers drowning in their own self pity over their lost mates.”

Then, she excuses herself to change out of her dirty clothes. Being the only two people left, Yixing heaves a heavy sigh and pulls Yifan into another hug.

“Out of all the people, your mother is the only sane one around.”

His verdict makes Yifan grin for a second.

“She always has been.”

They look at each other and Yifan finally calms down again. He kisses Yixing’s cheek softly, then pulls at his hand to indicate that he should follow him.

“Come with me.”

Yixing lets himself get guided to the room that has served as Yifan’s nest for the whole span of his life - when the Alpha sees the amount of pillows, blankets, and mattresses, he whistles in awe.

“You kind of outdid yourself here.”

“I continuously worked on it,” Yifan answers and pulls Yixing down with him into a pile of pillows.

They embrace each other tightly and take both a deep breath. 

“What a crazy day,” Yifan says then and rubs their noses together.

“Yeah. I still can’t…” Yixing starts, but then another thought jumps to his mind, “Fuck, baby, if our fathers get mated, does that make us _stepbrothers_ then?!”

“Can you like… not make this any more awkward than it already is, please?” Yifan squeals.

“Kind of kinky.”

“Would you stop loving me then?”

The serious concern in Yifan’s voice makes Yixing’s heart skip a beat. He rolls over the Omega and presses his lips onto the other’s.

“No. Never. I could never stop loving you.”

Yifan reciprocates the kiss, and when they part, he says:

“Then it doesn’t matter.”

Yixing kisses Yifan’s forehead, then snuggles into him.

He’s right. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that he can be with him.


	5. PT V

***

Birthdays. They stress Yifan out.

Not only does he have to deal with that very unhelpful Alpha mate of his, but now he also has two little pups running around between his feet - and yes, while they’re very cute, and he’d do anything for them they just… hinder him greatly in the moment.

Today’s their girl’s birthday and while Lifei doesn’t want it to be such a big deal, her older brother Mingjie is just all over the place about it. It wasn’t even seven in the morning when he stormed his parents’ bedroom and woke them with a loud “WAKE UP! IT’S FEIFEI’S BIRTHDAY!” - then he stormed out again to get his baby sister and give her his present.

“And you wanted a third one…” Yifan said when all Yixing could come up with was a long and frustrated groan, before he got up to check up on the kids.

None of the kids have been presented as a certain dynamic yet - thank god there’s still time for that. But looking at them makes it very clear that Mingjie is probably going to be presented as an Alpha. He’s what Yixing’s dad likes to say ‘the exact replica of how Yixing used to be’ - loud, wild, untamed. He’s restless, with a very short attention span, and very competitive. Even though he’s got troubles at school with all the sitting and learning, he aces every kind of sport, and god forbid someone challenges his position as the most athletic boy in his class. God forbid there’s any situation in which he might face competitors - he once was crushing on a girl in preschool, and had begged Yifan to help him make a card for Valentine’s Day, saying “But, Ba, it needs to be _the best_ card okay, I either give her my all or nothing!” - personally, that was the moment when Yifan just knew.

Lifei on the other hand, is a very soft-spoken girl and almost disappears next to her loud and obnoxious brother, and that’s not only because she’s three years younger. She’s a typical Omega child, and started nesting the moment she had learned how to walk, copying Yifan’s nest at first, but starting to bring in her own ideas soon after. She’s a very nurturing and caring type, even for her young age - once she’s asked if it was possible to get a second sandwich to preschool. When Yifan told her that she wouldn’t eat the second one anyways, she told him that the sandwich wasn’t supposed to be for her but another boy whose parents didn’t have the means to pack him a proper lunch. Ever since, she brings that boy her extra sandwich, which she checks on every morning before she leaves the house. If it’s Yixing packing the lunch, and he forgets, she even risks coming in late because she won’t leave the house without it.

Together, the siblings are a power couple. Mingjie protects his sister at all costs, while Lifei showers him with her care. He’s the only one in the family who’s allowed to enter her nest - she doesn’t even allow Yifan in when he suggests to help her building it. All she grants him is giving tips from afar. When Mingjie complains that he doesn’t like lunch or dinner, you’d find her sneaking into the kitchen later to make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, because that’s his favourite. If the family goes on a trip, Mingjie never lets go of his sister’s hand, fearing that he might lose her, so it’s better if she stays close to him. If either Yifan or Yixing need to get a little stricter with her, Mingjie would let out a growl, step in front of her, and puff his little chest to defend her. If either of them need to scold Mingjie, and the boy storms off into his room in a classic Alpha-child antic, Lifei would later join him and rub their scent glands together to calm him down. Of course there are quarrels, but all in all, they’re as harmonious as can be.

Today though, Mingjie is even more excited than usual, and ready to hype the shit out of his sister who gets infected by his mood. Yifan has a hard time to get everything ready for the party later in the afternoon, and only doesn’t lose his complete composure because Yixing would step in and take the kids outside into the garden, to grant Yifan the time he needs for the last preparations.

At five sharp, Yifan’s mother is the first to appear with a present under her arm. 

“I’m the first, right?” She says as she rubs her neck at her son's and then gets run over by her grandson.

“GRANDMA! It’s Feifei’s birthdayyyy!” He yells and pulls at her wrist to make her walk into the house.

“Oh, thank you for reminding me, I wouldn’t have known!” She says in a dry sarcastic voice, but with a smile, and the child clearly doesn’t pick up on it.

Instead, he takes the present out of her hand and says:

“That’s why you got me to remind you!”

Then he dashes into the living room and announces the arrival of his grandmother, which Lifei answers with an excited squeal.

“You know, I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with an Alpha child,” Jingyi says as she hands her coat to her son.

“He’s cute, most of the time… today though…” Yifan ponders and his mother snorts before she walks into the living room to greet the birthday girl.

Right when Yifan wants to close the door, another car pulls up in the driveway and Yixing’s and his own father step out. Wu Wei carries another present and a sour look on his face, while Weimin makes eye contact with Yifan and rolls his eyes, as if telling him to not pay too much attention to the other’s behaviour.

“Hello,” Yifan greets and pushes the door open again.

Wu Wei still isn't the most loving parent, but his grandchildren and Weimin have made him a tad calmer and a little more caring. He nods, then quickly rubs his neck against Yifan's as a greeting, before he takes off to the living room. Weimin closes the front door as he steps in after him and heaves a sigh.

"It was a hard day, huh?" Yifan asks as Weimin greets him.

"Don't get me started, he's being petty over nothing again." Yixing's dad shrugs his shoulders and takes off his coat. "I told him to pull himself together at least for the party. He had a rough day at work and I dared to _pick the wrong wrapping paper_ for Feifei's present."

Yifan snorts as Weimin rolls his eyes again.

"He's mad at this?"

"He's bought the wrapping paper for Mingjie, you know. Lifei has a different one. And I mixed them up.”

Weimin waves his hand in front of his face, indicating that Wu Wei has gone crazy. Yifan shows an amused smile and pats Weimin's back.

"My condolences."

"It's okay, I mean... I decided to put up with him in the end, I don't really get to complain now."

They walk over into the living room where Yixing hands the adults some drinks and the kids stare at the presents.

"Can Feifei start unpacking?" Mingjie asks as the girl longingly looks at the packages in front of her, but Yixing shakes his head no.

"We're still waiting for a few guests, patience, Mingjie."

"Uuuuugh!" The eight year old groans and throws himself onto his back in a theatrical manner.

It takes another ten to fifteen minutes for other relatives and neighbours to arrive, and then Lifei is finally allowed to unpack her presents. She goes for Wu Wei's present first.

"Why'd you pick that one?" Yifan asks and watches his daughter struggling with the ribbon, ready to jump in for assistance.

She blows one hair strand out of her face, then looks up to him.

"I like the paper the most."

Her answer makes Weimin lift his eyebrows in surprise.

"Oh. Ooooh. What was that, Feifei? I didn't hear clearly."

"I like the paper!" She repeats, while Yifan cuts the ribbon open with a scissor that Yixing's handed him.

When she notices that her father has helped her, she proceeds to carefully unpack the present as to not damage the motive printed on the paper. Yifan is always astonished how careful and mindful she is, even at such a young age.

"Oh! Did you hear that, Wu Wei?" Weimin cries out and places his hand on the other's shoulder. "She said she _liked the wrapping paper_!”

He clearly enjoys the teasing as Wu Wei crumbles and takes another sip of his drink.

"I got it, Weimin! I got it!" He cries out and Yifan giggles, while Yixing rolls his eyes along with Jingyi.

Nobody actually understands how this Alpha/Alpha relationship works. Wu Wei and Weimin quarrel a lot - when the family gets together, they always find something to complain about the other. But somehow, they made it work over the span of almost ten years already. Yixing and Yifan sometimes imagine that their dads are probably very different behind closed doors, otherwise nobody would ever put up with a relationship that consists of constant fighting. Yifan has the hunch that his father is the more submissive one in some aspects, and actually enjoys giving the authority into Weimin's hands - even though he'd probably never admit it, even if he died.

"By the way, Jingyi, where's Dawei?" Wu Wei tries to change the topic as Lifei gets overly excited over her first present.

"He's on a business trip, but says hello," his ex-wife explains, "He's sorry he couldn't make it."

"Such a pity," Wu Wei sighs, because he gets surprisingly well along with Jingyi's new mate.

Yifan decides that everything is under control, so he walks into the kitchen to check on the food. Yixing follows him.

"I know it's been ten years, but... don't you think it's so weird to be seeing our dads like that?" He asks as Yifan lifts the lid of the first saucepan.

"It is, absolutely," Yifan answers and stirs the gravy, just to make sure it won't burn, "But when has this family ever been normal?"

"That's a fair point," Yixing giggles and kisses Yifan's cheek, "You did well today, baby boy."

"The evening's far from over, come back with that after we've gotten these bastards out again."

Yixing's answer is a bright laughter and another kiss for his mate, before he goes back to the living room because his daughter calls out for him.

Birthdays really do stress Yifan out, no matter if it's a party organised for one of his children or his mate. And every time the guests are finally gone, and Yixing's helped him cleaning the kitchen, he's just glad it's over.

Lifei and her brother have decided to test her new toys in her room, and Yifan is grateful that these two can actually entertain themselves for a longer period of time without him or Yixing needing to give more input, so the adults can actually get stuff done without them interfering. He's been hearing other parents complain about that a lot.

"Finally!" Yixing exclaims as he wipes the counter one last time.

"I'm so tired," Yifan yawns and leans against the fridge.

"You know, next time we just hire a maid to cook, you really don't have to do all of this stuff alone."

"It's okay," the Omega retorts, "I can manage.”

"I just don't want you to be this exhausted... you barely had time to sit down tonight, it makes me feel bad for you."

Yixing steps forward and takes Yifan's face in his hands. He really feels bad, especially since he never seems to be of good help. All he does is entertain the guests with refreshments, and helps cleaning up afterwards, but all the preparations are done by Yifan usually.

"Refuel me then," Yifan says with a wink and makes Yixing snort.

"Let's check on the kids first," Yixing turns down the flirting, but Yifan gives in, since it's late and way past their bedtime.

They find the sibling pups in Lifei's room, as expected, and to their surprise, they're fast asleep already. Spread out on Lifei's bed, Mingjie uses his warm and bigger body to wrap his little sister up, who has her nose buried in the curve of Mingjie's neck to inhale the scent of her brother. Yixing crosses his arms in front of his chest and tilts his head.

"Are we gonna... wake them up to at least make them brush their teeth?" He asks in a low voice and jumps when Mingjie jerks a little.

In the end, their son only wrinkles his nose for a second, then hugs his sister even tighter.

"Let them sleep," Yifan decides, because his heart cannot bear the thought of waking them from their slumber and destroying this cute picture.

Yixing nods, then takes one of Lifei's many blankets and throws it over the two. After one last long look at them, he turns for the door and pushes Yifan gently out of the room.

“You did a great job with them,” he says while they’re walking to their own bedroom and Yifan scoffs.

"It's not like you haven't done anything yourself," he reminds his mate, but Yixing just wrinkles his nose in response. 

Yifan knows that Yixing is upset about the fact that he's not at home as much as he'd like to. He's going to follow his father's footsteps, and is on a lot of business trips to meet customers and business partners to represent the company and get clients used to him. Yifan stays at home to take care of the kids, and indulges in his art every now and then, which has gathered him a certain reputation and imagine in the art scene.

"You're a good father, Yixing, don't worry," Yifan says when he picks up on Yixing's distress and kisses his temple, "The kids love you."

"Do _you_?”

"What... kind of question is that!"

Yifan grunts as Yixing laughs and disappears into the bathroom that's connected to their bedroom. Yifan lets him go and refrains from scolding Yixing for the banter and turns for the closet to change into some comfortable clothes to sleep in.

Maybe it's because of their daughter's birthday and causes Yifan's hormones to reminisce her birth and the months that lead to that moment, but when he takes his shirt off, his eyes fall on his stomach. He's lucky he didn't gain that much excessive weight during both pregnancies, but god damn it, those stretch marks... he would've loved it if he had been spared with those. The scars have long turned from a pinkish tone into fine, silvery lines across his skin, but still. He doesn't think it looks too appealing, even though they're a very natural reminder of the fact that he's nurtured two lives with that body.

"Yeah, same!"

Yifan hasn't heard Yixing coming back from the bathroom because he was too busy pinching the skin around his v-line and winces.

"Huh?! What?" He asks with a startled tone and turns around to face the other.

"Same. I sometimes just stop to look at you and marvel at your body."

"Jesus _fucking_ Christ!" Yifan exclaims at the bad and cheesy line and escapes to the bathroom.

"What, baby boy?"

"I wasn't _marvelling_ at my body!" Yifan barks back and starts brushing his own teeth.

Yixing appears in the doorway and leans against the doorframe to shoot Yifan a smile in the mirror.

"Always so humble."

Yifan's mouth is full of toothpaste, so everything his mate gets is an epic eye roll. Yixing senses that he's slightly uncomfortable again, a habit that has never worn off. It probably will never. Which only means that Yixing has to do better to make the other's worries go away. 

When Yifan is done brushing his teeth and has washed his face quickly, Yixing approaches him from behind and throws his arms around his hips. He's delighted when he sees that the claiming mark on Yifan's back is still as prominent as ever.

"What's on your mind, hm?"

His thumbs circle across the scarred skin right below Yifan's belly button with gentle pressure and Yifan bites his bottom lip because he's not sure what to say. After all these years. After everything settling down, he still falls into old ways and starts doubting everything around him, and mostly, himself.

"Nevermind," he says, deciding that he will not have this discussion right now, "I'm tired. Let's go to sleep."

Yixing lets him off the hook, but as soon as they're under the sheets, he presses his body against Yifan's back and slips his hands under the other's shirt that he’s thrown on before laying down.

Some time passes, until Yixing speaks up.

"Do you think we'd have a Beta child if we ever had a third one?"

"I highly doubt it," Yifan remarks in a sarcastic voice.

"Would be cool though, wouldn't it? Then we'd have all the dynamics under one roof."

"Ugh, I don't think I'd want to get through a third pregnancy. All that excessive water retention in my legs, it was _annoying_!”

Yixing giggles and his grip around Yifan gets tighter.

"Remember when you found out you were pregnant with Mingjie?"

"Fuck."

"Your first sentence was literally 'I don't want to be fat!', I was dying of laughter!"

Even eight years later, Yixing finds that moment so amusing he still cannot hold back the laughter.

"Well! If there was a way to have your own kids without the whole pregnancy thing, I'd happily go for that option," Yifan slips and Yixing's head shoots up.

"Why though?"

Yifan grunts and turns around so he's facing Yixing. Neither of them can properly see the other one in the dark, but they can recall each other’s features and just know which face is carrying which look in that moment.

"I... I don't know. It's sort of exhausting. There was always something with my blood levels, remember?"

"Minor issues," Yixing says, and adds, "I have the feeling you're just worried I might not like you when you're pregnant."

"I was moody and hard to deal with at that time, so I wouldn't even hold that against you."

"Baby boy!" Yixing howls in such a loud voice, both of them stop breathing for a second and hold still to listen whether or not their kids have woken up.

When Lifei's bedroom stays silent though, Yixing continues, a lot more quieter:

"Even if you were, I _understood_. Knowing you were baring my children was the best feeling ever."

Yifan might be a needy bitch, but words like these are what he constantly wants to hear. Not because he wants to be praised, he just wants to be reassured that Yixing has not grown tired of him. And Yixing will most positively never grow tired of his Omega.

"I love you either way. I will never not love you.”

Yixing’s arms hold him even closer and Yifan kisses the other’s neck. The Alpha shudders for a moment, thanks to his sensitive neck, but endures the ticklish feeling until Yifan buries his face in Yixing’s shirt.

“So do I.”


End file.
